Decree
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
In practice
The judgment of a court of equity or admiralty, answering to the judgment of a court of common law. A decree in equity is a sentence or order of the court, pronounced on hearing and understanding all the points in issue, and determining the right of all the parties to the suit, according to equity and good conscience.
2 Daniell, Ch. Pr. 986.
Decree is the judgment of a court of equity, and is, to most intents and purposes, the same as a judgment of a court of common law. A decree, as distinguished from an order, is final, and is made at the hearing of the cause, whereas an order is interlocutory, and is made on motion or petition. Wherever an order may, in a certain event resulting from the direction contained in the order, lead to the termination of the suit in like manner as a decree made at the hearing, it is called a "decretal order." Brown. It is either interlocutory or final; the former where it passes upon some plea or issue arising in the cause, but not involving a definitive adjudication of the main question; the latter where it finally determines the whole matter in dispute. In French law. Certain acts of the legislature or of the sovereign which have the force of law are called "decrees," as the Berlin and Milan decrees.
In Scotch law
A final judgment or sentence of court by which the question at issue between the parties is decided.