Definition
In law, signification refers to the formal notice given of a judicial act — specifically, in French law and the civil law tradition, the official communication of a decree, sentence, or other court order to the parties affected by it. The term functions as a procedural concept: it is the act by which a judgment or judicial determination is made known to those bound by it, triggering the legal consequences that flow from that notice (such as the running of time limits for appeal or compliance).
In a broader legal sense, signification can also refer to the meaning or import of a legal instrument, word, or symbol — the legal effect or operative sense that a term or provision is intended to carry.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The act of signifying, or something that is signified; significance. Evidence for the existence of something. A meaning of a word.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act of signifying; a making known by signs or other means. That which is signified or made known; that meaning which a sign, character, or token is intended to convey.
The common and legal meanings share a root concept — making something known — but the legal usage is narrower and procedurally specific. In law, signification is not merely communication in the abstract; it is a formal act with defined legal consequences, particularly in civil law systems where the moment of official notice determines when rights and obligations attach. A researcher reading "signification" in a common English source should not assume the loose sense of "meaning" or "significance" captures what a legal text intends.
Common Confusion
Signification is sometimes read as a synonym for significance or import when it appears in translated or comparative law texts. In English-language legal writing influenced by French or civilian sources, the term carries a procedural weight — the formal notice function — that the plain English word "significance" does not. Researchers may also conflate signification with service of process in the common law tradition. The concepts are analogous (both concern official notice of legal acts), but signification belongs specifically to civilian procedure; service of process is the common law counterpart. Treating them as interchangeable when analyzing historical or comparative materials risks anachronism and doctrinal imprecision.
Why It Matters in Research
Signification appears almost exclusively in legal sources dealing with French law, Quebec law, Louisiana civil law, or comparative civilian procedure. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should flag the term as a marker of civilian influence in a text: its presence often signals that the surrounding material draws on French procedural codes or commentary rather than English common law sources.
The term's procedural significance matters most in historical research contexts. In French practice, the date of signification determined when appeal periods began to run and when judgments became enforceable — making it a term of art with real consequences, not merely a synonym for "announcement." Researchers translating or interpreting older French legal texts, Louisiana civil law materials, or Quebec procedural documents should read signification with that precision in mind.
Because both Black's editions give only the French law gloss, the term's broader semantic sense (the legal meaning or import of words and instruments) is underrepresented in the historical dictionary record. When signification appears in an older English treatise in the sense of "the signification of a word in a deed," the dictionaries on this shelf will not fully account for that usage. Researchers should supplement with general legal reference works on interpretation and construction in those contexts.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's editions are in complete agreement, offering identical single-sentence entries: "In French law. The notice given of a decree, sentence, or other judicial act." The brevity is notable — both editions treat this as a narrow, context-specific term requiring little elaboration. Neither edition addresses the English-language usage of signification in the sense of legal meaning or import, which appears in treatise literature on statutory and contractual construction. This gap is significant: the dictionaries correctly identify the civilian procedural usage but leave the interpretive usage unaddressed, creating a partial record that could mislead a researcher encountering the term in non-civilian contexts.
Jurisdictional Note
Signification as a formal procedural term is most relevant in Louisiana (which follows the civil law tradition) and in research involving Quebec or French legal materials. In common law jurisdictions, the functional equivalent is service of process or notice, and the term signification rarely appears in native common law sources. Researchers working across the Louisiana-common law divide should be attentive to whether a text uses the civilian vocabulary intentionally.