DECISION

7 definitions found across Law Mind sources

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DECISIONAuthored
The Law Mind • 1434 words
Definition
A decision is the formal determination made by a court or tribunal resolving a matter submitted to it for adjudication. In its primary legal sense, a decision is the outcome — the conclusion reached — not the paper on which it is recorded, not the court's reasoning, and not the procedural steps that led to it. Two closely related but distinct meanings appear across legal usage: 1. Judicial decision. The judgment, decree, or ruling by which a court disposes of a case or a contested question within a case. The decision is what was resolved; the opinion, if any, explains why. 2. Administrative or quasi-judicial decision. A formal determination by a government agency, board, or administrative tribunal — such as the Board of Veterans' Appeals or an immigration judge — that resolves a claim, appeal, or proceeding. These decisions carry legal force and are generally subject to judicial review. In French civil law tradition, the term also encompassed formal legal opinions rendered by jurists on questions put to them — a usage that persisted in Bouvier's era but has no direct modern American counterpart. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The act of deciding; a choice or judgment; also, firmness of conviction; in sports, a result when no clear winner is determined at the end of a contest. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act of settling or terminating a controversy by giving judgment; determination of a question or doubt; also, an account or report of a legal adjudication. The gap between common and legal meaning is narrow but consequential. In ordinary usage, "decision" can describe any choice — including informal, private, or tentative ones. In legal usage, a decision is a formal, authoritative act by a body with adjudicative power, producing a binding legal result. The common-language sense of "firmness" or "decisiveness" as a personal quality has no legal relevance whatsoever. ---
Common Confusion
DECISION vs. OPINION: These terms are routinely conflated, even by practitioners. The decision is the court's judgment — the actual result. The opinion is the court's explanation of its reasoning. A court may issue a decision without a written opinion. Conversely, a lengthy opinion does not change or expand what the decision itself resolves. Rapalje & Lawrence and Bouvier both flag this as a source of confusion in the primary sources, and it remains one today. DECISION vs. ORDER: A decision resolves a case or a principal question in a case on the merits. An order is a directive of the court governing procedure or specific conduct within a case. The line blurs in administrative law, where agencies frequently issue "orders" and "decisions" interchangeably, and in trial court practice where interlocutory rulings are sometimes called decisions whether or not they finally resolve anything. DECISION vs. JUDGMENT: In precise legal usage, a judgment is the formal, enforceable legal act — often the docketed document that terminates the litigation and may be executed upon. A decision is the determination that underlies and produces the judgment. In practice, and across most legal dictionaries, the terms are used interchangeably, which is accurate enough in most contexts but can matter in jurisdictions where "judgment" has a defined procedural meaning tied to entry and docketing requirements. ---
Why It Matters in Research
The distinction between decision and opinion is not merely semantic in historical research. Early American reporters often published only the decision — the result — with minimal or no reasoning. When a researcher finds a citation to an "unreported decision," this typically means the outcome is known from court records but no written opinion explaining the reasoning was published or preserved. Do not assume that a court that issued no opinion issued no decision. In administrative law research, "decision" carries significant technical weight. Agency decisions are the entry point for judicial review; courts review the decision (and the record supporting it), not the agency's internal deliberations. The phrase "final agency decision" or "final decision" is a jurisdictional trigger in many review statutes — researchers working with administrative materials must identify precisely when and whether a decision became "final," as this controls both the reviewability of the action and the running of any appeal deadline. For historical corpus research: Anderson's entry in this set is anomalous — it concerns the elements of fraud in tort, not the definition of decision, which suggests a data ingestion error or misattribution in that source. Do not treat Anderson's entry as authority on the definition of decision. The French-law meaning of "decision" — a jurist's opinion on a legal question — appears in Bouvier and in early American treatises influenced by civil law sources. Researchers working with Louisiana materials, early American equity sources, or comparative law writings should be alert to this usage, which has not survived into modern American legal parlance. Jurisdictional variation in administrative law is substantial. Federal administrative decisions follow the framework of the Administrative Procedure Act; state administrative decisions are governed by state APAs or agency-specific statutes, which vary significantly in what constitutes a "final decision" and what review is available. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st and 2nd editions) offer nearly identical, brief definitions: a judgment or decree pronounced by a court in settlement of a controversy. Both editions treat decision and judgment as functionally equivalent without meaningfully distinguishing them. Bouvier is the most analytically useful of the historical sources. He draws the explicit and important line between a decision (the judgment itself) and an opinion (the reasoning behind it), noting that the two "are often confounded, yet there is a wide difference between them." This distinction, articulated in mid-nineteenth century practice, remains good law and good research methodology today. Rapalje & Lawrence add precision on what a decision consists of: the determination reached by the court after argument or submission, as distinct from the paper docketed with the clerk. This is a useful corrective against over-reliance on docket entries as evidence of judicial determinations. Webster's 1913 confirms that by the late nineteenth century, "decision" in ordinary educated usage already encompassed the legal meaning — a report or account of a legal adjudication — suggesting the term had migrated from legal into general educated discourse without losing its legal associations. What the historical dictionaries collectively miss: they do not address administrative or agency decisions at all. This is expected given their era — the modern administrative state and its decisional apparatus postdates most of these sources significantly. Researchers should not treat the historical definitions as complete for any research involving agency adjudication. ---
Jurisdictional Note
In federal administrative law, the point at which an agency action becomes a "final decision" is controlled by statute and by the APA and has been extensively litigated. State administrative law frameworks differ substantially; in some states, an agency's initial determination is not a "decision" subject to judicial review until internal appeals are exhausted. Researchers working across jurisdictions should verify the precise procedural meaning of "final decision" in the applicable statutory framework before drawing conclusions about reviewability or timeliness. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Algorithmic Decision-Making and Due Process (The Law Mind Constitutional Law Encyclopedia) — for research on procedural requirements governing automated or AI-assisted decisions by government actors. Board of Veterans' Appeals — Hearing, Decision, and Remand (The Law Mind Military, Veterans & Admiralty Law Encyclopedia) — for the specific procedural framework governing BVA decisions and remand practice. ---
Related Terms
Judgment — the formalenforceable legal act that a decision produces; often used interchangeably with decision Opinion — the court's written explanation of the reasoning behind a decision; distinct from the decision itself Order — a court directive governing procedure or specific conduct; compare with decision on the merits Decree — equity court equivalent of a judgment; historically the term used in chancery for what law courts called a judgment Final judgment — the determination that fully resolves a case and triggers appeal rights Final agency action — the administrative law analog; the point at which agency decision-making is complete and ripe for judicial review Adjudication — the broader process of which a decision is the outcome Determination — synonym in administrative and agency contexts Ruling — informal term for a decision on a specific motion or question within a case Finding — a factual determinationas distinguished from a legal decision; component of a decision rather than the decision itself
DECISIONmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In practice. A judgment or decree pronounced by a court in settle- ment of a controversy submitted to it and
DECISIONmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
In Practice. A judg- ment given by a competent tribunal. The French lawyers call the opinions which they give on questions propounded to them, decisions. See Inst. 1.2.8; Dig. 1.2.2; 29 Ind. 170; 36 Wis. 434; also JUDGMENT. The terms "opinions" and "decisions" are often confounded, yet there is a wide difference between them. A decision of a court is its judgment; the opinion is the reason given for that judgment. 18 Cal. 27. The finding of the court as distinguished from "verdict" the finding of the jury. 134 Ind. 573. Sce JUDGMENT. FINAL DECISION.
DECISIONmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
--A judgment of a court, i. e. the determination arrived at, not the paper commonly called the "judgment" docketed with the clerk, but the result reached by the court after argument or submission of the case. DECISION, defined). 36 Wis. 434, 437. 437. (of court, what consists of). 12 Minn. DECISION OF THE COLLECTOR, (in United States statute). 7 Ben. (U. S.) 251, 257. DECISIONS, (in a statute). 29 Ind. 170. DECISIVE OATH.-An oath resorted to in the civil law, where one of the parties to a suit, not being able to prove his charge, offered to refer the decision of the cause to the oath of principal kinds of declarations2. Of use. - A declaration of use or trust is a statement or admission-which in the case of land or chattels real must be written, (Stat. 29 Car. II. c. 3, 87, Statute of Frauds) - that property is to be held to the use of or upon trust for a certain person. Thus, under the Statute of Uses land may be conveyed to A. to such uses as B. shall declare, and a declaration of the uses by B. takes effect accordingly by vesting the land in the person or persons in whose favor it is made. Deeds to declare uses were commonly employed before the abolition of fines and recoveries, which, being only adapted to convey the absolute estate, could not be made to answer the purposes of family settlements where a variety of substitutional limitations are required, and therefore the land was conveyed by fine or recovery to a given person, and the uses afterwards declared by a separate deed. (2 Bl. Com. 363.) Appointments of uses under powers are identical in effect with declarations of uses, but, strictly speaking, the latter term is only applied in the case of uses created by a fine or recovery. 3. Of trust. - A declaration of trust is the ordinary mode of creating a trust when the trust property is already vested in the intended trustee. Thus, if A., being owner of property, wishes to create a trust in it for the benefit of B., without conveying it to another person, he executes a deed whereby he declares that he hold the property in trust for B. 4. Bankruptcy. -A declaration of inability to pay debts is a declaration by a person admitting such inability; such a declaration, when signed and filed with the required formalities, constitutes, in England, an act of bankruptcy on which the debtor may be adjudicated a bankrupt. (Robs. Bankr. 136; Bankruptcy Rules, 1870, 16.) Under the old law it was called a "declaration of insolvency." (2 Bl. Com. 488 n. (6); Stat. 4 Geo. IV. c. 16.) The commonest inwhere a person presents a petition for liquidation, declaring that he is insolvent. Robs. his adversary; which the adversary was bound stance of a declaration of inability to pay debts is to accept, or tender the same proposal back again, otherwise the whole was taken as confessed by him. Cod. 4, 1, 12.
DECISIONn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Cutting off; division; detachment of a part. [Obs.] Bp. Pearson. The act of deciding; act of settling or terminating, as a controversy, by giving judgment on the matter at issue; determination, as of a question or doubt; settlement; conclusion. The decision of some dispute. Atterbury. An account or report of a conclusion, especially of a legal adjudication or judicial determination of a question or cause; as, a decision of arbitrators; a decision of the Supreme Court. The quality of being decided; prompt and fixed determination; unwavering firmness; as, to manifest great decision.
decisionnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The act of deciding. | A choice or judgement. | Firmness of conviction. | A result arrived at by the judges when there is no clear winner at the end of the contest. | A win or a loss awarded to a pitcher.
decisionverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
To defeat an opponent by a decision of the judges, rather than by a knockout

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