Decree

The judgment or sentence of a court of equity which corresponds to the judgment of a court of law.

It is either Interlocutory or Final. The former is given on some plea or issue arising in the cause which does not decide the main question; the latter settles the matter in dispute, and a final decree has the same effect as a judgment at law.

Legislation. In some countries as in France, some acts of the legislature, or of the sovereign, which have the force of law, are called decrees; e.g., the Berlin and Milan decrees.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.