Definition
Requisites and validity refers to the conditions that must be satisfied for a legal act, instrument, or judicial proceeding to be recognized as legally operative and enforceable. A thing is valid when it conforms to all formal and substantive requirements imposed by law; it is invalid, void, or voidable when one or more of those requirements is absent or defective.
The concept applies across virtually every domain of law. In the context most prominently addressed by historical authorities:
1. Judicial judgments: A judgment is valid when rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction, at a properly constituted sitting, in the place authorized by law, and in conformity with procedural requirements. A judgment lacking any of these foundations is subject to challenge as void or voidable.
2. Contracts and instruments: An agreement or written instrument is valid when it satisfies the elements required for its type — capacity, consent, lawful object, consideration (where required), and any mandatory formal requirements such as writing, witnessing, or acknowledgment.
3. Statutes and official acts: A statute is valid when enacted through constitutionally authorized procedure by a body with legislative competence over the subject matter. An official act is valid when performed by an authorized officer within the scope of delegated power.
The term as a compound — "requisites and validity" — functions as a doctrinal organizing principle: the requisites are the enumerated preconditions; validity is the legal status conferred when those preconditions are met.
Core Elements
For judicial judgments, the classic requisites distilled from common law and equity authorities are:
— Competent tribunal: The court must have subject matter jurisdiction over the type of dispute and personal jurisdiction over the parties.
— Proper constitution of the court: The court must be lawfully assembled — a sitting judge in a lawfully convened session.
— Territorial authority: The judgment must be rendered within the court's authorized geographic or district limits.
— Procedural ripeness: The cause must be in a state ready for adjudication; a premature judgment, rendered before the matter is fit for hearing, lacks this element.
— Required form: The judgment must conform to any formalities prescribed by statute or rule.
For instruments and contracts, requisites vary by instrument type but typically include capacity of the parties, mutual assent, definiteness of terms, lawful purpose, and compliance with any statutory form requirements.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is primarily an organizational heading rather than a standalone doctrine. In historical legal sources — treatises, digests, and encyclopedias — "Requisites and Validity" appears as a section title or subhead grouping the conditions for enforceability of a particular legal act. Researchers encountering it in an index or table of contents should read it as a pointer to the substantive rules governing what makes a given instrument, proceeding, or judgment legally effective.
The practical trap: in older digests and encyclopedias, "Requisites and Validity" is often used as a catch-all subhead beneath broader entries (Judgments, Contracts, Wills, Deeds). The content under that heading varies dramatically by the parent topic. A researcher finding the subhead under "Judgments" will encounter jurisdictional and procedural requirements; under "Deeds," they will find formalities of execution; under "Marriage," they will find capacity and consent rules. The heading signals the type of analysis to expect, but the substance is always topic-specific.
Jurisdictional variation matters here more than almost anywhere else. What constitutes a valid judgment, deed, or contract has been substantially statutory in most U.S. jurisdictions since the late nineteenth century, and the specific requisites can differ sharply between states. Colonial-era and early republic sources may reflect common law requisites that have since been modified or displaced by statute.
Researchers working backward through time should also note that the void/voidable distinction — critical to understanding consequences of defective requisites — was itself unsettled in early sources and has been refined over successive generations of case law and statutory reform.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary addresses the concept primarily through the lens of judicial judgments. The Bouvier formulation requires four conditions for a valid judgment: a competent judge or court, a lawful time and place, the prescribed form, and a cause that has been properly prepared for hearing. Bouvier's treatment flags the nullity consequences of defect — a judgment is null if jurisdiction was absent, if no court was properly held, if the judge acted outside the authorized district, or if the judgment preceded a proper hearing.
What Bouvier does not fully address — a gap that modern researchers should note — is the distinction between judgments that are void ab initio (a nullity, treatable as such collaterally) and those that are merely voidable (subject to direct attack but presumptively valid until set aside). This distinction, which became increasingly important in American practice, is not consistently developed in the classical dictionary sources and requires consultation of treatise and case authority for the period in question.
Bouvier's formulation also reflects a common law court model. The requisites for validity in courts of limited or statutory jurisdiction, administrative tribunals, and modern federal courts have been substantially developed outside the classical dictionary tradition and must be sourced accordingly.
Jurisdictional Note
The specific requisites for validity of judgments, instruments, and official acts are largely governed by statute and court rule in U.S. jurisdictions. Researchers should not assume that the common law requisites stated in historical dictionaries reflect current requirements in any particular state. Variation is especially pronounced for instruments such as deeds, wills, and powers of attorney, where state-specific execution and witnessing requirements are strictly enforced.