INTERDICT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

INTERDICTAuthored

The Law Mind • 1328 words

Definition

An interdict is a formal prohibition or command issued by a competent authority — judicial, civil, or ecclesiastical — ordering that something be done or refrained from doing. The term carries distinct meanings depending on the legal system in which it appears:

Roman and Civil Law (primary legal meaning). A decree issued by the Roman praetor directing or prohibiting a specific act, primarily in disputes over possession or quasi-possession of property. The interdict was not a judgment on underlying rights but a provisional remedy designed to preserve the status quo while the parties' rights were determined. In modern civil law systems, the interdict survives as a summary proceeding, functionally equivalent to an action, used to obtain rapid judicial relief in possession disputes.

Ecclesiastical Law. A censure imposed by ecclesiastical authority — by a bishop, archbishop, or the Pope — prohibiting individuals, communities, or entire territories from participation in specified religious rites and sacraments. An interdict does not sever membership in the church (as excommunication does) but suspends the enjoyment of religious privileges.

Scots Law and Modern Civil Law Jurisdictions. A court order prohibiting a person from doing a specified act. Functionally analogous to an injunction in common law systems. Still in active use in Scotland, where "interdict" is the standard term for what English and American courts would call a temporary or permanent injunction.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To forbid an action or thing by formal or legal sanction; to exclude someone from church services; to impede an enemy or interrupt supply lines (military usage).

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To forbid or prohibit; to lay under an interdict; to cut off from religious privileges, as applied to a city, church, or individual.

The common English sense of "interdict" as a general prohibition tracks closely to the ecclesiastical and civil law meanings, but the Roman law usage is narrower and more technical: a praetorian interdict was not merely a prohibition but a specific procedural instrument with defined categories and a summary character. A researcher encountering "interdict" in a historical legal source must determine which of these three registers — Roman procedure, ecclesiastical discipline, or civil law injunction — applies before drawing conclusions.

Common Confusion

Interdict vs. Injunction. In common law systems, the injunction is the functional equivalent of the civil law interdict, but the two terms are not interchangeable. Using "injunction" when reading civil law sources, or "interdict" when reading English equity sources, risks importing the wrong procedural framework. Notably, Scots law uses "interdict" where English law uses "injunction," so a Scottish court of session decision granting an interdict is not categorically different from an English injunction — but the procedural rules and terminology diverge.

Interdict vs. Excommunication. In ecclesiastical law, an interdict suspends religious privileges while leaving the person technically within the church. Excommunication is the more severe censure, severing the individual from the community of the faithful. Historical sources sometimes use the terms loosely; the distinction matters when assessing the scope and reversibility of an ecclesiastical penalty.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Bouvier identifies the classical civil law subdivision:

Possessory interdicts — concerned with the acquisition, retention, or recovery of possession.
Restitutory interdicts — ordering restoration of a thing or person to a prior state.
Exhibitory interdicts — ordering production or exhibition of a person or thing.
Prohibitory interdicts — forbidding a specific act (the closest to the modern lay sense of "interdict").

In ecclesiastical law, interdicts were classified by scope: personal (against a named individual), local (against a place, such as a church or city), and general (against an entire territory or people).

Why It Matters in Research

The term "interdict" is a significant trap for researchers working across legal traditions. In a Roman law treatise, an interdict is a praetorian procedural device — not a judgment, not a final order on rights, but a provisional instrument. In a Scottish case report, an interdict is effectively an injunction and should be read accordingly. In a medieval ecclesiastical document, an interdict may describe a sweeping territorial suspension of religious rites with enormous political consequences.

Corpus researchers should be alert to the following:

Historical shift in civil law usage. Bouvier and Burrill both note that in modern civil law (as opposed to classical Roman law), the interdict evolved into an ordinary summary action. Sources from different periods may use the same word to describe procedurally distinct things — the classical praetorian interdict was issued without a full hearing; the modern civil law equivalent follows summary but regular process.

Scots law is a live jurisdiction. Unlike most Roman law terminology, "interdict" remains current in Scottish legal practice. Law Mind corpus materials involving Scottish courts will use this term in a fully operative sense. Do not treat it as an archaic or purely historical term in that context.

Connection to possession doctrine. The interdict in Roman and civil law is deeply tied to the doctrine of possessio — possession as a protected legal interest distinct from ownership. Researchers working on property, possession, or the actio spolii will encounter interdicts as the primary procedural vehicle. Understanding the interdict is prerequisite to understanding how Roman law protected possessory interests without resolving title.

Ecclesiastical interdicts and political history. Medieval and early modern legal sources frequently reference interdicts in the context of disputes between secular rulers and the papacy. These carry legal consequences (suspension of sacraments, closure of churches) that affect not only ecclesiastical but also civil and political legal arrangements of the period.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries converge on the Roman law core: an interdict is a praetorian decree commanding or prohibiting action in possessory disputes. Burrill provides the most precise formulation, distinguishing the interdict as a form of words (formula) rather than a final judgment, and noting its use specifically where a contention arose between parties as to possession. Bouvier adds the important clarification that the interdict operated provisionally — ordering or forbidding until rights were definitively resolved — and acknowledges the modern civil law transformation into a summary action, citing Heineccius.

Black's (1st Ed.) is brief but accurate, and correctly notes the summary character of modern civil law interdicts. The 2nd Edition entry appears truncated in the available source material and contributes little additional substance.

None of the historical dictionaries adequately address the Scots law usage, which is a significant omission given that Scottish interdict was and remains a functioning common-law-adjacent remedy. Researchers relying solely on these sources will not understand that "interdict" in a Scottish context is operationally equivalent to injunction, not an exotic Roman law relic.

The ecclesiastical dimension is touched on by Burrill and Bouvier but not developed at length — reasonable given the focus of legal dictionaries on civil procedure, but a gap for researchers working in canon law or legal history.

Jurisdictional Note

In Scotland, interdict remains the standard term for court orders prohibiting conduct, governed by Scots civil procedure rather than Roman law doctrine directly. In Louisiana and Quebec — mixed civil/common law jurisdictions — the term appears in civil law contexts with the Roman law heritage intact. In England, the United States, and most common law jurisdictions, "interdict" is not a term of active procedural art; researchers encountering it in those sources are almost certainly reading historical, ecclesiastical, or comparative law material.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Roman Law Procedure; Civil Law Remedies; Ecclesiastical Law; Scots Law; Possession and Possessory Remedies

INTERDICTmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In Roman law. A de- cree of the prætor by means of which, in cer- tain cases determined by the edict, he himself directly commanded what should be done or omitted, particularly in causes involving the right of possession or a quasi possession. In the modern civil law, interdicts are regarded precisely the same as actions, though they give rise to a summary proceeding. Mackeld. Ron. Law, § 258. INTERDUM EVENIT, ETC. tive, or exhibitory; the first being a prohibi tion, the second a decree for restoring pos- session lost by force, the third a decree for the exhibiting of accounts, etc. Heinec. 1206. An interdict was distinguished from an "action," (actio,) properly so called, by the circumstance that the prætor himself decided in the first in- stance, (principaliter,) on the application of the plaintiff, without previously appointing a judex, by issuing a decree commanding what should be done, or left undone. Gaius, 4, 139. It might be adopted as a remedy in various cases where a reg- ular action could not be maintained, and hence in- terdicts were at one time more extensively used by the prætor than the actiones themselves. Aft- erwards, however, they fell into disuse, and in the time of Justinian were generally dispensed with. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 258; Inst. 4, 15, 8. In ecclesiastical law. An ecclesiastical censure, by which divine services are pro- hibited to be administered either to particular persons or in particular places. In Scotch law. An order of the court of session or of an inferior court, pronounced, on cause shown, for stopping any act or pro- ceedings complained of as illegal or wrong- ful. It may be resorted to as a remedy against any encroachment either on property or pos- session, and is a protection against any un- lawful proceeding. Bell.

INTERDICTmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

property passes by conveyance, the transat tion is said to be inter vivos, to distinguish it from a case of succession or devise. So an ordinary gift from one person to another is called a “gift inter vivos,” to distinguish it from a donation made in contemplation of death, (mortis causa.) In Roman law. A de cree of the preetor by means of which, fm certain cases determined by the edict, he himself directly commanded. what should be done or omitted, particularly in causes involving the right of possession or a quasi possession. In the modern civil law, interdicts are regarded precisely the same as actions, though they give rise to a summary proceeding: Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 258. Interdicts are either prohibitory, restorative, or exhibitory; the first being a prohibition, the second a decree for restoring possession lost by force, the third a decree for the exhibiting of accounts, etc. Helinec. § 1206. An interdict was distinguished from an “action,” (actio,) properly so called, by the circumstance that the pretor himself decided jin the first instance, (principaliter,) on the application of the plaintiff, without previously apinting a judex, by issuing a decree commanding what should be done, or left undone. Gaius, 4, 139. It might be adopted as a remedy in various cases where a regular action could not be maintained, and hence interdicts were at one time more extensively used by the pretor than the actiones themselves. Afterwards, however, they fell into disuse, and in the time of Justinian were generally dispensed with. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 258; Inst. 4, 15, & In ecclesiastical law. An ecclesiastical censure, by which divine services are prohibited to be administered either to particular persons or in particular places. In Scotch law. An order of the court of session or of an inferior court, pronounced on cause shown, .for stopping any act or proceedings complained of as illegal or wrongful. It may be resorted to as a remedy against any encroachment either on property or possession, and is a protection against any unlawful proceeding. Bell.

INTERDICTmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870

[Lat. interdictum, from interdicere, to prohibit, or inter (duos) dicere, to pronounce between two.] In the civil law. A decree of the prætor, or form of words by which he commanded something to be done, or prohibited it from being done; (formæ atque conceptiones verborum, quibus prætor aut jubebat aliquid, aut fieri prohibebat ;) and which was chiefly used where a contention arose between parties concerning possession, or quasi possession. Inst. 4. 15, pr. Gaius, 4. 139. They were of three kinds, prohibitory, (prohibitoria;) restoratory, (restitutoria;) and exhibitory, (exhibitoria.) Inst. 4. 15. 1. The first resembled the modern writ of injunction, (3 Bl. Com.442;) time, that these alone, from their etymology (interdicere, to prohibit,) ought to be called interdicts, and that those of the restoratory and exhibitory kind should properly be called decrees; but the practice was otherwise, and to reconcile it with the etymology, a new derivation was suggested in the Institutes, viz: that these forms were called interdicta, quia inter duos dicuntur; (because they were pronounced between two contending parties.) Inst. 4. 15. 1. And see Dig. 43. 1. Cod. 8. 1. An interdict was distinguished from an action, (actio,) properly SO called, by the circumstance that the prætor himself decided, in the first instance, (principaliter,) on the application of the plaintiff, without previously appointing a judex, by issuing a decree commanding what should be done, or left undone. Gaius, 4. 139. It might be adopted as a remedy in various cases where a regular action could not be maintained, and hence interdicts were at one time more extensively used by the prætor than the actiones themselves; afterwards, however, they fell into disuse, and in the time of Justinian were generally dispensed with. 1 Mackeld. Civ. Law, 211, § 209. Inst. 4. 15. 8. INTERDICT, Interdiction. [Lat. interdictio; from interdicere, to forbid.] In canon law. An ecclesiastical censure, prohibiting the administration of divine ordinances, or the performance of religious services. Termes de la Ley. Cowell. Stat. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 12. In Scotch practice. An injunction. Bell's Dict. 7 Bell's Appeal Cases, 272.

INTERDICTv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To forbid; to prohibit or debar; as, to interdict intercourse with foreign nations. Charged not to touch the interdicted tree. Milton. To lay under an interdict; to cut off from the enjoyment of religious privileges, as a city, a church, an individual. An archbishop may not only excommunicate and interdict his suffragans, but his vicar general may do the same. Ayliffe.

INTERDICTn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A prohibitory order or decree; a prohibition. These are not fruits forbidden; no interdict Defends the touching of these viands pure. Milton. A prohibition of the pope, by which the clergy or laymen are restrained from performing, or from attending, divine service, or from administering the offices or enjoying the privileges of the church. An order of the court of session, having the like purpose and effect with a writ of injunction out of chancery in England and America.

interdictverb

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 exclude (someone or somewhere) from participation in church services; to place under a religious interdict. | To forbid (an action or thing) by formal or legal sanction. | To forbid (someone) from doing something. | To impede (an enemy); to interrupt or destroy (enemy communications, supply lines etc).

interdictnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A papal decree prohibiting the administration of the sacraments from a political entity under the power of a single person (e.g., a king or an oligarchy with similar powers). Extreme unction/Anointing of the Sick is excepted. | An injunction.

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