Interdict

In Civil Law. The formula according to which the praetor ordered or forbade anything to be done in a cause concerning true or quasi possession until it should be decided definitely who had a right to it. But in modem civil law it is an extraordinary action, by which a summary decision is had in questions of possession or quasi possession.

Heinec. Elem. Jur. Civ. § 1287.

Interdicts are either prohibitory, restorative, or exhibitory; the first being a prohibition, the second a decree for restoring possession lost by force (interdict unde vi., 50 111. 465), the third a decree for the exhibiting of accounts, e'tc.

Id. 1290.

Interdicts were decided by the praetor without the intervention of a judex, differing in this from actions (actiones). The etymology of the word, according to Justinian, is quod inter duos dicitur; according to Isidorus, quod interim dicitur.

Vocat; Sand. Just. 589; Mackeld. Civ. Law, §§ 196, 230, 235.

Like an injunction, the interdict was merely personal in its effects; and it had also another similarity to it, by being temporary or perpetual.

Dig. 43. 1. 1. 3. 4. See Story, Eq. Jur. § 865; Halifax, Anal. c. 6.

See "Injunction." In Ecclesiastical Law. An ecclesiastical censure, by which divine services are prohibited either to particular persons or particular places. These tyrannical edicts, issued by ecclesiastical powers, have been abolished in England since the reformation, and were never known in the United States.

See 2 Burns, Ecc. Law, 340, 341.

Baptism was allowed during an interdict; but the holy eucharist was denied, except in the article of death, and burial in consecrated ground was' denied, unless without divine offices.