Definition
A tacit tack is an implied lease arising by operation of law under Scots law. When a tenant (tacksman) continues to possess land peaceably after the formal expiry of a tack — without the landlord taking steps to remove him — the law infers a new lease on the same terms from the parties' conduct rather than any express agreement. The doctrine rests on the principle that the landlord's acquiescence in continued possession signals consent to a renewed tenancy. It is closely associated with, and in most treatments functionally equivalent to, tacit relocation.
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Common Language
The word "tack" carries several ordinary meanings unrelated to law — a short nail, a direction of sailing, or a course of action. In Scots legal usage, "tack" is a technical term of art for a lease. A "tacit tack" is therefore an implied lease, a pairing of concepts that has no straightforward equivalent in common English. Researchers encountering this phrase in historical Scottish records should not read either word in its ordinary sense.
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Common Confusion
TACIT TACK vs. TACIT RELOCATION: Bouvier's entry redirects readers from "tacit tack" to "tacit relocation," and in practice the two terms describe the same underlying phenomenon — a lease renewed by implication from continued possession. The distinction, where one is drawn at all, is terminological rather than doctrinal. Some historical sources use "tacit tack" to emphasize the implied lease as a legal instrument; others use "tacit relocation" to emphasize the mechanism (the law's inference of re-letting from failure to remove the tenant). Researchers should treat both terms as pointing to the same doctrine and search both headings in historical Scots law materials.
TACIT TACK vs. TACKING (adverse possession): These are entirely separate concepts. "Tacking" in the adverse possession context refers to the aggregation of successive periods of possession by different claimants to satisfy a statutory limitations period. "Tacit tack" refers to an implied renewal of a consensual lease. The shared root word is coincidental and potentially misleading when moving between Scots property law and common law adverse possession doctrine.
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Why It Matters in Research
Tacit tack is a narrow term of Scots law with a limited but specific footprint in legal history sources. Several research traps are worth flagging:
First, the doctrine is almost entirely a creature of pre-codification Scots private law. Researchers working with 18th- and 19th-century Scottish estate records, agricultural leases, or court of session materials are most likely to encounter it. It does not translate directly into English common law categories and should not be applied by analogy to English landlord-tenant cases.
Second, because Bouvier's simply redirects to tacit relocation without defining tacit tack independently, researchers relying on Bouvier's alone will miss the Black's and Burrill's framing. Cross-checking all three dictionaries is necessary to reconstruct the full picture.
Third, the maxim cited in Black's — "Tacita quaedam habentur pro expressis" (things unexpressed are sometimes considered as expressed, 8 Coke 40) — reflects a broader implied-terms principle that runs through both civil law and common law sources. Researchers interested in the theoretical underpinnings of tacit tack may find this maxim a useful gateway into related civil law doctrine on implied consent.
Fourth, the term "tacksman" appears in the historical record as the tenant under a tack. In Highland Scottish land tenure, tacksmen occupied a specific social and economic position as intermediate lease-holders who sublet to smaller tenants. Understanding this social context is sometimes necessary to read estate litigation records accurately.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's provides the most complete entry, defining tacit tack as an implied lease inferred from peaceful possession after expiry, and citing Forbes's Institutes of the Law of Scotland (Part 2, p. 153) as authority. This is a genuine and traceable source — William Forbes's Institutes was a standard exposition of Scots private law in the early 18th century. Black's also appends the Latin maxim from Coke, which situates the doctrine within the broader tradition of implying consent from conduct.
Burrill's entry parallels Black's but is truncated in the available text, cutting off mid-sentence. It confirms the Scots law context and the "implied tack or lease" formulation without adding independent authority.
Bouvier's offers no independent definition, redirecting entirely to tacit relocation. This is editorially reasonable — the doctrines are functionally interchangeable in most contexts — but means Bouvier's is not useful as a standalone source for this term.
None of the three dictionaries addresses how tacit tack interacted with the requirements of Scots formal writing (the need for probative deeds in certain land transactions), a gap that researchers working with primary Scots sources may need to fill from other secondary literature on Scots property law.
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Jurisdictional Note
Tacit tack is a doctrine of Scots law and has no direct equivalent in English common law or American law. Researchers working in jurisdictions outside Scotland should treat it as a historical comparative reference point rather than operative doctrine. Louisiana, with its civil law heritage, has analogous implied-lease concepts, but the term "tacit tack" itself does not appear in Louisiana jurisprudence.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Adverse Possession — Tacking of Successive Possessors (The Law Mind Property Law Encyclopedia): Relevant for distinguishing the adverse possession concept of "tacking" from the entirely separate Scots law doctrine of tacit tack. The encyclopedia entry clarifies the common law doctrine with which tacit tack is most often confused.
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