VICINITY

5 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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VICINITYAuthored
The Law Mind • 1040 words
Definition
Vicinity denotes nearness or proximity — the quality of being close to a given place, or the surrounding area adjacent to it. In legal usage, the term resists precise measurement and is interpreted contextually depending on the statute, instrument, or doctrine in which it appears. 1. Spatial proximity. The condition of being near to a specified location, without a fixed or uniform distance. Courts have held that vicinity admits of a wider latitude than strict contiguity or adjacency; it may encompass areas beyond those immediately bordering the place in question. 2. The surrounding area or neighborhood. The physical space near a given point — used in statutes, deeds, zoning instruments, and public works law to identify a zone of effect or benefit. In street and public improvement statutes, vicinity defines the territory within which landowners may be assessed for benefits arising from a public work.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Proximity; the state of being near. Also, the nearby region or surrounding area, and informally, an approximate size or amount ("in the vicinity of ten thousand dollars"). Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "The quality or state of being near, or not remote; nearness; propinquity; proximity." Also the adjacent space or country; neighborhood. The legal meaning does not sharply diverge from common usage, but courts have given the term a deliberately elastic construction that exceeds ordinary intuition. Where common speech treats "vicinity" as meaning immediately nearby, legal interpretation — particularly in statutory contexts — has extended its reach to include non-adjacent towns and territories. Researchers should not assume vicinity in a legal instrument means what the ordinary reader would take it to mean.
Common Confusion
VICINITY vs. VICINAGE: These terms share a Latin root and are sometimes loosely interchanged, but they carry distinct legal significance. Vicinage is the technical term of art in criminal procedure, anchoring the Sixth Amendment right to a jury drawn from the district where the crime was committed. Vicinity is a broader, more contextual term of proximity used across property, public works, and statutory law. Using one where the other is meant produces different legal consequences. Historical sources occasionally blur this line. VICINITY vs. CONTIGUITY: Contiguity denotes actual physical touching or immediate adjacency. Courts have expressly held that vicinity is not synonymous with contiguity and encompasses a larger zone. The distinction matters in statutory construction whenever a legislature uses one term rather than the other.
Why It Matters in Research
The principal research trap with vicinity is assuming it carries a fixed or measurable meaning. It does not. Its legal scope is determined case by case and statute by statute, and historical courts were explicit that it deliberately resists reduction to a bright-line distance rule. In public improvement and special assessment law, vicinity defines who can be taxed or assessed for benefits from a street extension or public work. Identifying whose property falls "in the vicinity" can determine whether an assessment is valid. Researchers examining 19th-century municipal law decisions will encounter this usage frequently, and the geographic scope attributed to vicinity varied across jurisdictions. In jury-related contexts, researchers must be careful to distinguish which term the source is actually using. Older treatises and digests sometimes index vicinage-related material under vicinity or neighborhood without distinguishing the constitutional doctrine from the general proximity concept. Statutory interpretation cases are the richest source of judicial definition for this term. The two authorities cited in Bouvier — 12 Gray 545 (Massachusetts) and 63 N.H. 246 (New Hampshire) — illustrate how state courts construed vicinity in public works statutes to reach non-adjacent territories, rejecting a narrow contiguity reading. Researchers working in 19th-century state statutory law should check whether the controlling jurisdiction took a narrow or expansive view. In deeds and conveyancing instruments, vicinity language may describe the character or location of property. Earlier instruments may use vicinity more loosely, as a narrative descriptor rather than a term of legal precision, and should not be read as conferring a defined boundary.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides the most useful legal treatment available in the historical shelf sources. Bouvier is clear on two points: first, that vicinity etymologically and by common understanding admits wider latitude than proximity or contiguity; and second, that as applied to towns and territorial divisions, it may embrace non-adjacent areas. Bouvier cites case authority from Massachusetts and New Hampshire to support the expansive reading in statutory contexts, particularly public improvement law. What Bouvier does not provide is treatment of vicinity in constitutional or criminal law. The connection between vicinity and vicinage — the Sixth Amendment jury-district doctrine — is handled under the separate entry for vicinage in the historical dictionaries. Researchers should treat the two terms as occupying different doctrinal spaces in the historical sources, even where the underlying Latin root is shared. No other shelf source in the available corpus provides independent treatment of vicinity as a distinct legal term. Webster's 1913 confirms that the common and legal meanings run in parallel, with nearness and surrounding area as the shared core, but does not address the legal elasticity that courts introduced.
Jurisdictional Note
The elasticity of vicinity in statutory contexts was not uniform across American jurisdictions in the 19th century. Massachusetts and New Hampshire courts expressly extended vicinity to non-adjacent areas; other state courts may have applied stricter readings depending on the statutory language and context. Researchers working across state lines should not assume that a construction established in one jurisdiction traveled automatically to another.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Venue Law Mind Encyclopedia — Jury Selection (Vicinage) Law Mind Encyclopedia — Special Assessments and Public Improvement Districts
Related Terms
Vicinage — the constitutional and criminal procedure term; jury drawn from the district of the offense Contiguity — immediate physical adjacency; narrower than vicinity Neighborhood — overlapping general proximity concept; used in nuisance and zoning law Venue — procedural doctrine for proper forum; related to geographic proximity of parties and events Proximity — physical or causal nearness; used across tortpropertyand public law Adjacency — direct border contact; compare with the broader scope of vicinity Assessment district — defined territory for public improvement taxation; often bounded by vicinity language
VICINITYmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
See PROXY (contracted from procuracy, procurator). A person appointed in the place of another, to represent him. The instrument by which a person is appointed so to act. The right of voting at an election of an incorporated company by proxy is not s general right, and the party claiming it must show a special authority for that purpose; Ang. & A. Corp. § 128; 76 Pa. 42; and although not defined on the face of the proxy, it will be held to be for the election then in contemplation, and for no other; 5 R. R. & Corp. L. J. 255. At common law it was allowable only by the peers of England, and that is said to be in virtue of a special permission of the king; 1 Paige 590; but that practice has been discontinued; Bagehot, Eng. Const. 175. Where there was no clause in the act of incorporation empowering the members to vote by proxy, but a by-law provided that the shareholders may so vote, it was held, in view of this by-law, that a vote given by proxy should have been received; 5 Day 329. The court did not say how they would have decided had there been no such by-law, but drew a clear distinction between public and moneyed corporations. A by-law prohibiting voting by proxy has been held unreasonable and invalid: 38 Pac. Rep. (Cal.) 452. In 2 Green N. J. 222, it was held that it required legislative sanction before any corporation could make a by-law authorizing members to vate by proxy. So, also, in 3 Grant, Cas. 209. Sce 2 Kent 294; Beach, Pub. Corp. 391; 6 Wend. 509. Stockholders of national banks may vote by proxy, but no officer, clerk, teller, or bookkeeper of a bank may act as proxy; R. S. § 5144; many of the states have passed statutes regulating the right to vote by proxy. Where it is provided in the charter of a corporation that votes may be given by proxy, and an appointment is made without limitation, a vote by the proxy 'binds the stockholder. whether exercised in his interest or not, to the same extent as if the vote had been cast in person; 98 Ala. 92. A power of attorney, irrevocable for ten years, executed by joint owners of stock, is not against public policy, nor within an act providing that every proxy shall be re- vocable at the pleasure of the person is- suing it; 36 N. Y. S. 627; and a by-law providing that no proxy should be voted by any one not a stockholder of the corporation is invalid under an act pro- viding generally that stockholders may be represented by proxies; 104 Cal. 649. A stockholder who holds a proxy from another stockholder, and votes at a corpor- ate meeting by a show of hands, counts as one person, without regard to the number of proxies he has; [1897] 1 Ch. 1; 52 L. T. N. 8. 846; 101 L. T. J. 327; contra, рег Kekewich, J., 22 Law Mag. & Rev. 46; but if proxies are held by non-members, every such has one vote (semble); [1897] 1 Ch. 1. In England it is said that proxy- holders cannot demand a poll; 3 Q. B. D. 442. See VOTING TRUST; MEETING. In Ecclesiastical Law. A judicial proctor, or one who is appointed to manage another man's law concerns is called a proxy. Ayliffe, Parerg. An annual payment made by the paro- chial clergy to the bishop, etc., on visita- tions. Tomlins, Law Dict. In Rhode Island and Connecticut the name of an election or day of voting for officers of government. Webst. Dict.
VICINITYmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
Etymologically, by com- mon understanding, it admits of a wider latitude than proximity or contiguity, and may embrace a more extended space than that lying contiguous to the place in ques- tion; and, as applied to towns and other territorial divisions, may embrace those not adjacent; 12 Gray 545; 63 Ν. Η. 246. In a statute authorizing the extension of the street and an appointment of benefits upon lots in the vicinity the term is a rel- ative one and does not denote any partic- ular definite distance from the extension of the street but must be construed accord- ing to the circumstances of each case; 18 Pa. 26. The meaning of vicinity of a city must depend upon the size of the city, etc., and its particular surroundings; 52
VICINITYn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
The quality or state of being near, or not remote; nearness; propinquity; proximity; as, the value of the estate was increased by the vicinity of two country seats. A vicinity of disposition and relative tempers. Jer. Taylor. That which is near, or not remote; that which is adjacent to anything; adjoining space or country; neighborhood. "The vicinity of the sun." Bentley.
vicinitynoun
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.
Proximity; the state of being near. | Neighbourhood; nearby region; surrounding area. | Approximate size or amount.

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