UNION

8 definitions found across Law Mind sources

← Dictionary
UNIONAuthored
The Law Mind • 1212 words
Definition
UNION carries several distinct legal meanings depending on context. The three most significant in legal research are: 1. Labor union. An association of workers organized to advance collective interests in wages, hours, and working conditions. Labor unions are recognized legal entities with rights and obligations under federal and state labor law, including the right to bargain collectively on behalf of members. 2. Civil union / domestic union. A legally recognized relationship between two persons that confers some or all of the rights and obligations of marriage without the designation of marriage. The civil union as a formal legal status is a modern development, arising primarily from state-level legislative responses to marriage equality debates in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. 3. Union of states / political union. In constitutional and public law, the consolidation of formerly separate sovereigns or territories into a single political entity. "The Union" in American constitutional discourse refers to the United States as a federal political body. A fourth, older meaning appears in ecclesiastical and property law: the consolidation of two parishes, benefices, or ecclesiastical jurisdictions into one, effected by ecclesiastical or legislative authority. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Union" commonly denotes an act of joining or combining, a marriage or relationship, a labor organization, or a political federation. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The act of uniting or joining two or more things into one... a number of persons, states, or nations joined or associated together for some common purpose... a labor organization." The common meanings and legal meanings substantially overlap, but researchers must be alert to context-dependent divergence. In labor law, "union" is a term of art with precise statutory definitions. In family law, "union" used loosely may or may not denote a legally recognized status — the phrase "civil union" carries specific, jurisdiction-dependent legal weight that "union" alone does not. ---
Common Confusion
UNION vs. MARRIAGE: A civil union is not marriage under federal law and has not been treated equivalently in all contexts. Before the Supreme Court's decisions in United States v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), parties in civil unions were categorically excluded from federal marital benefits even where their state recognized the relationship. Researchers working in the period 2000–2015 must be precise about which status a couple held and in which jurisdiction. UNION vs. DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP: Civil union and domestic partnership are distinct statuses in states that recognize both. Domestic partnerships typically confer fewer rights and have less formal ceremonial requirements. The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably in popular writing but have separate legal definitions where both exist by statute. ---
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES 1. Labor union — an employee organization formed for collective bargaining and related purposes. Governed principally by the National Labor Relations Act and the Labor-Management Relations Act at the federal level. 2. Civil union — a state-created relationship status conferring marital-equivalent or partial marital rights. Exists in a limited number of jurisdictions; others have converted civil unions to marriages following Obergefell. 3. Domestic union / domestic partnership — a related but formally distinct status, varying widely in scope by jurisdiction. 4. Political union / union of states — the constitutional consolidation of sovereign entities. Used in American constitutional law to denote the federal republic. 5. Ecclesiastical union — the merging of parishes, benefices, or church jurisdictions, historically accomplished by papal authority, legislative act, or episcopal decree. ---
Why It Matters in Research
The word "union" in a historical legal document requires immediate context resolution. A nineteenth-century source may mean an ecclesiastical consolidation, a political merger, or a labor association — the term was used freely across all these domains before specialized vocabularies hardened. Labor law researchers should be aware that the legal framework governing unions changed dramatically from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth. Early common-law treatment often characterized union activity as criminal conspiracy. The modern framework — recognizing unions as legitimate bargaining entities with protected rights — emerges from the Norris-LaGuardia Act (1932) and the NLRA (1935). Historical sources predating this framework reflect a fundamentally hostile legal posture. Family law researchers face the greatest terminological instability. "Civil union" as a formal legal category does not appear in American law until Vermont's Act Relating to Civil Unions (2000). Rapalje & Lawrence and other nineteenth-century dictionaries do not address this meaning at all. When researching domestic partnership and civil union law, historical dictionaries are of limited utility; the operative sources are state statutes and, for the constitutional dimension, federal case law from 2003 onward. The constitutional meaning of "Union" — the federal political body — carries its own research implications. In antebellum constitutional argument, "union" was a contested concept, with competing theories of the nature of the federal compact. Researchers working on secession, nullification, or Reconstruction-era materials should track how the term functions in political-constitutional argument, not merely as a descriptive label. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence address "union" briefly and primarily in the ecclesiastical sense — the consolidation of benefices or parishes — and in the general political sense of united states or territories. The dictionary reflects the nineteenth-century legal world in which neither labor union (as a legally recognized entity) nor civil union (as a family law status) had achieved formal legal definition. This is an instructive absence: the sources say little precisely because the law had not yet resolved the status of these associations. Rapalje & Lawrence also note the use of "union" in the context of the Poor Law — workhouses in England were administered through Poor Law Unions, geographical groupings of parishes for the administration of poor relief under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. This English administrative meaning will appear in English legal sources of the mid-to-late nineteenth century and should not be confused with either the political or the labor sense. Historical sources across the shelf are in general agreement on the political and ecclesiastical meanings. None anticipate the labor law or family law meanings that dominate modern legal research. ---
Jurisdictional Note
Civil union as a legally recognized status exists in only a subset of American jurisdictions, and its scope varies significantly. Following Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), some states converted existing civil unions to marriages by operation of law; others left civil union as a parallel status. Researchers must verify the current and historical law of the specific state at issue, as no uniform federal civil union status exists. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Unmarried Cohabitants — Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions (State Variations), The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia ---
Related Terms
Collective bargaining — Labor-management negotiations conducted through union representation Domestic partnership — A related but formally distinct non-marital relationship status Marriage — The traditional legally recognized spousal union; contrast with civil union Guild — Historical precursor to trade union organization Confederation — A looser form of political union among sovereigns Benefice — The ecclesiastical unit subject to union in the ecclesiastical law sense Consolidation — The general legal concept of merging separate entities into one Federal — Pertaining to the political union of states under a shared sovereign framework
UNIONmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
so that all property may be taxed alike and equally. 3 Ohio St. 15. UNIFORMITY, ACT OF, which regu- lates the terms of membership in the Church of England and the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, (St. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 4.) See St. 9 & 10 Vict. c. 59. The act of uniform- ity has been amended by the St. 35 & 36 Vict. c. 35, which inter alia provides a short- ened form of morning and evening prayer. Wharton.
UNIONmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In English poor-law. A union consists of two or more parishes which have been consolidated for the better admin- istration of the poor-law therein. In ecclesiastical law. A union consists of two or more benefices which have been united into one benefice. Sweet. In public law. A popular term in Amer- ica for the United States; also, in Great Britain, for the consolidated governments of England and Scotland, or for the political tie beween Great Britain and Ireland. In Scotch law. A "clause of union" is a clause in a feoffment by which two estates, separated or not adjacent, are united as one,
UNIONmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
Im English poor-law. A unDjon consists of two or more parishes which have been consolidated for the better administration of the poor-law therein. In ecclesiastical law. <A union consists of two or more benefices which have been united into one benefice. Sweet. In public law. <A popular term in America for the United States; also, in Great Britain, for the consolidated governments of England and Scotland, or for the political tie between Great Britain and Ireland. In Scotch law. A “clause of union” is a clause in a feoffment by which two estates, separated or not adjacent, are united as one, for the purpose of making a single seisin suffice for both.
UNIONn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
The act of uniting or joining two or more things into one, or the state of being united or joined; junction; coalition; combination. Agreement and conjunction of mind, spirit, will, affections, or the like; harmony; concord. That which is united, or made one; something formed by a combination or coalition of parts or members; a confederation; a consolidated body; a league; as, the weavers have formed a union; trades unions have become very numerous; the United States of America are often called the Union. A. Hamilton. A textile fabric composed of two or more materials, as cotton, silk, wool, etc., woven together. A large, fine pearl. [Obs.] If they [pearls] be white, great, round, smooth, and weighty . . . our dainties and delicates here at Rome . . . call them unions, as a man would say "singular," and by themselves alone. Holland. In the cup an union shall he throw, Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark's crown have worn. Shak. A device emblematic of union, used on a national flag or ensign, sometimes, as in the military standard of Great Britain, covering the whole field; sometimes, as in the flag of the United States, and the English naval and marine flag, occupying the upper inner corner, the rest of the flag being called the fly. Also, a flag having such a device; especially, the flag of Great Britain. A joint or other connection uniting parts of machinery, or the like, as the elastic pipe of a tender connecting it with the feed pipe of a locomotive engine; especially, a pipe fitting for connecting pipes, or pipes and fittings, in such a way as to facilitate disconnection. A cask suspended on trunnions, in which fermentation is carried on. Hypostatic union (Theol.) See under Hypostatic. -- Latin union. See under Latin. -- Legislative Union (Eng. Hist.), the union of Great Britain and Ireland, which took place Jan. 1, 1801. -- Union, or Act of Union (Eng. Hist.), the act by which Scotland was united to England, or by which the two kingdoms were incorporated into one, in 1707. -- Union by the first, or second, intention. (Surg.) See To heal by the first, or second, intention, under Intention. -- Union down (Naut.), a signal of distress at sea made by reversing the flag, or turning its union downward. -- Union jack. (Naut.) See Jack, n., 10. -- Union joint. (Mech.) (a) A joint formed by means of a union. (b) A piece of pipe made in the form of the letter T.
Unionnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The 0-10-2 locomotive wheel arrangement. | The canton of the United States flag: the portion of the flag containing stars on a blue background.
Unionname
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The United States of America. | Those of the United States that did not secede at the time of the Civil War (of the United States of America). | The Soviet Union: the proper noun Union is the standard English translation of the proper noun Союз (Sojuz), and All-Union is the standard English translation of всесоюзный (vsesojuznyj). | Alternative form of union. | Place names: | A community in Central Elgin municipality, Elgin County, Ontario, Canada. | Place names: | A barangay of Ubay, Bohol, Philippines. | Place names: | A village on the south cast of the island of Siargao, Surigao del Norte, Philippines. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A town in Greene County, Alabama. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A ghost town in Merced County, California. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A former unincorporated community in Napa County, California. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A small town in Tolland County, Connecticut. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A village in McHenry County, Illinois. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | An unincorporated community in Clay Township, Pike County, Indiana. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A tiny city in Hardin County, Iowa. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A home rule city in Boone County, Kentucky. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A town in Knox County, Maine. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A town in Neshoba County and Newton County, Mississippi. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A city, the county seat of Franklin County, Missouri. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | An unincorporated community in Clark County, Missouri. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A village in Cass County, Nebraska. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A village and census-designated place in the town of Wakefield, Carroll County, New Hampshire. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A hamlet in Madison County, New York. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A large town in Broome County, New York. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A city in Montgomery County and Miami County, Ohio. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A city in Union County, Oregon. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A city, the county seat of Union County, South Carolina. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | An unincorporated community in Floyd County, Virginia. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A small town, the county seat of Monroe County, West Virginia. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A small town in Burnett County, Wisconsin. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A small town in Door County, Wisconsin. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A town and unincorporated community in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | An unincorporated community in the town of Lima, Grant County, Wisconsin. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A small town in Pierce County, Wisconsin. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A town and unincorporated community in Rock County, Wisconsin. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A small town in Vernon County, Wisconsin. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A small town in Waupaca County, Wisconsin. | Place names: | A number of places in the United States: | A large number of townships in the United States, listed under Union Township.
Unionname
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
A surname.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

SubscribeEncyclopediaSign In
The Law Mind Legal Dictionary. This is a legal research library, not a lawyer.
Dictionary • Encyclopedia • Sign In