Definition
"Stitution" is not an independent legal term. The entries appearing under this heading in Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) are fragments — truncated remnants of longer headwords, most likely "CONSTITUTION," "INSTITUTION," "SUBSTITUTION," or "STIPULATION," depending on the source volume and pagination from which the excerpt was drawn. Neither fragment constitutes a self-contained legal definition, and neither should be treated as a freestanding entry.
The Bouvier's excerpt — concerning a fraternity held not to be a "literary or scientific institution" within a taxation exemption statute — is almost certainly drawn from an entry under INSTITUTION, addressing the legal classification of organizations for tax-exemption purposes.
The Black's excerpt — defining an international pact or agreement between states, preliminary to a formal treaty or addressing matters of common interest such as international postage — is almost certainly drawn from an entry under STIPULATION (in the sense of an international agreement) or, more likely, CONVENTION (in the sense of an international instrument).
Neither fragment, standing alone, reflects a term that exists in legal usage as "Stitution."
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Common Confusion
Do not conflate this artifact entry with any of the following terms, each of which has its own distinct legal meaning and full dictionary treatment: INSTITUTION (the classification of an organization under law, including for tax-exemption purposes); CONSTITUTION (the foundational legal instrument of a state or organization); SUBSTITUTION (replacement of one party, document, or obligation for another); CONVENTION (in international law, a multilateral treaty or agreement on matters of common interest); and STIPULATION (an agreement between parties, or in international law, a formal undertaking between states).
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Why It Matters in Research
This entry is a data artifact, not a legal term. Researchers encountering "STITUTION" in a digitized legal dictionary corpus should treat it as an OCR error, a scan-boundary truncation, or an indexing artifact from a multi-volume work where the first letter or letters of a headword were cut off during digitization or transcription.
Two specific research traps apply:
First, if you are searching the Law Mind corpus for this string and receiving results, the underlying documents likely contain entries for INSTITUTION, CONSTITUTION, SUBSTITUTION, or CONVENTION. Broaden or correct your search term before drawing any conclusions about the source material.
Second, the Bouvier's fragment references 108 Me. 320 — a real citation to the Maine Reports, volume 108. That case, if retrieved, will illuminate the scope of "literary or scientific institution" under a Maine tax-exemption statute, and properly belongs to research on INSTITUTION as a legal classification, not to any term called "Stitution."
The Black's fragment describes international agreements that are preliminary to formal treaties or that regulate matters of common interest outside of politics or commerce — the classic definition of a CONVENTION in international law. Researchers working on treaty interpretation, international postal agreements, or the law of international instruments should follow that thread under CONVENTION or TREATY, not this truncated heading.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's and Black's agree insofar as their fragments reflect distinct bodies of law: Bouvier's points toward domestic tax and organizational classification law; Black's points toward public international law. There is no tension between the fragments because they do not address the same subject. Both fragments are incomplete and neither should be quoted or cited as authority for any proposition of law. The Bouvier's fragment is useful only as a pointer to a Maine case on institutional tax exemption. The Black's fragment is useful only as a reminder to consult the full entry under CONVENTION or STIPULATION in the second edition.
No historical dictionary source defines "Stitution" as a legal term. The word does not appear in Roman law, civil law, common law, or equity as an independent term of art.
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