Definition
"Vival" does not appear as a recognized legal term in the primary source provided or in the broader common law lexicon. The Rapalje & Lawrence entry supplied under this heading is misattributed: it defines REPUBLICATION (of a will), not a term called "vival." No independent legal definition of "vival" appears in Rapalje & Lawrence, Black's Law Dictionary, Bouvier's Law Dictionary, or other standard common law reference works.
It is possible that "vival" represents a variant spelling, a transcription error, or a corruption of another term. Candidates include:
1. REVIVAL (of a will or statute): The process by which a previously revoked or lapsed instrument is restored to legal effect. In will law, revival typically requires re-execution or republication, depending on the jurisdiction. In statutory law, revival refers to the restoration of a repealed statute, often by repeal of the repealing act.
2. VIVAL (civil law variant): In some Continental legal traditions, terms derived from the Latin vivus (living) appear in contexts involving living persons, as distinguished from posthumous or testamentary acts. However, no established English common law term "vival" carrying independent doctrinal weight has been identified.
Researchers encountering "vival" in a legal document or index should treat it as a likely error for REVIVAL or, depending on context, REPUBLICATION.
Common Confusion
VIVAL / REVIVAL: If "vival" appears in a document, the overwhelming probability is that it is an incomplete or corrupted form of REVIVAL. See the REVIVAL entry for full treatment of that doctrine.
REVIVAL / REPUBLICATION (of wills): These are related but distinct concepts. Republication is the act of re-executing or re-affirming a will, giving it the effect of a will made on the date of republication. Revival addresses the restoration of a previously revoked will. Nineteenth-century sources, including the Rapalje & Lawrence reference to 1 Hill (N.Y.) 590, sometimes use these terms interchangeably or in close proximity, which compounds indexing confusion.
Why It Matters in Research
The primary research risk here is index corruption or optical character recognition (OCR) error. In digitized historical legal texts, "revival" is frequently misread as "vival" when the leading "re-" is lost at a line break, a torn page, or a damaged binding. Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus who encounter "vival" as a standalone index entry or headnote should:
1. Check whether the surrounding text concerns the revival or republication of a will, the revival of a cause of action, or the restoration of a lapsed statute — all common doctrinal contexts where "revival" appears with high frequency.
2. Note that the Rapalje & Lawrence entry cross-referenced in the source material for this term is explicitly the REPUBLICATION entry, directing to 1 Hill (N.Y.) 590. This reinforces the likelihood that "vival" is a fragment of REVIVAL, since revival and republication of wills are closely related concepts often treated together in nineteenth-century American treatises.
3. If working with manuscript sources or early print materials, verify against the original document before concluding that "vival" is an intentional term of art.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence do not define "vival" as an independent entry. The source material attributed to this term instead contains the REPUBLICATION entry, which cross-references 1 Hill (N.Y.) 590. This appears to be a cataloging or transcription anomaly rather than a genuine entry for "vival."
No entry for "vival" has been located in Bouvier's Law Dictionary (1839 or later editions), Black's Law Dictionary (any edition through the eighth), or Tomlin's Law Dictionary. The term does not appear in standard Latin law glossaries as an English legal term of art, though the Latin root vivus appears in phrases such as inter vivos (between living persons), which is a well-established term of art distinct from anything "vival" might denote.