Reversal

In International Law. A declaration by which a sovereign promises that he will observe a certain order, or certain conditions, which have been once established, notwithstanding any changes that may happen to cause a deviation therefrom; as, for example, when the French court consented for the first time, in 1745, to grant to Elizabeth, the czarina of Russia, the title of empress, it exacted as a reversal a declaration purporting that the assumption of the title of an imperial government by Russia should not derogate from the rank which France had held towards her. Letters by which a sovereign declares that, by a particular act of his, he does not mean to prejudice a third power. Of this we have an example in history. Formerly the emperor of Germany, whose coronation, according to the Golden Bull, ought to have been solemnized at Aix-la-Chapelle, gave to that city, when he was crowned elsewhere, reversals, by which he declared that such coronation took place without prejudice to its rights, and without drawing any consequences therefrom for the future. In Practice. The decision of a superior court by which the judgment, sentence, or decree of the inferior court is annulled.