Definition
A term with two distinct but related legal meanings, one drawn from general procedural law and one specific to Scottish practice.
1. General procedural usage. An interlocutor is a judicial order, ruling, or judgment issued during the course of a proceeding that does not finally determine the matter between the parties. In this sense it is functionally equivalent to an interlocutory order — a direction from the court that resolves a subsidiary question or governs the conduct of litigation while the principal dispute remains pending.
2. Scottish practice. In the Court of Session and before the Lord Ordinary, the term carries broader application. An interlocutor is any written order or judgment of the court, whether preliminary or final. Scots law uses the word where English and American practice would use "order," "decree," or "judgment" depending on context. Critically, an interlocutor in Scottish practice may exhaust the entire point at issue, and if not appealed within the prescribed time it will operate as a final determination of the case — an effect not implied by the term's use elsewhere.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): One who takes part in a dialogue or conversation; a person who questions or interprets.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who takes part in dialogue or conversation; a talker, interpreter, or questioner. Also, secondarily, an interlocutory judgment or sentence.
The gap is significant. In ordinary English, an interlocutor is a participant in a conversation — a meaning entirely unrelated to courts or procedure. Researchers encountering the term in a Scottish legal document should not carry over this conversational sense. The legal meaning describes a written court instrument, not a person. The Webster's 1913 secondary definition acknowledges the procedural sense but subordinates it; in Scottish legal sources, the procedural meaning is primary and dominant.
Common Confusion
Interlocutor and interlocutory are frequently treated as interchangeable, but they are not the same part of speech and do not always describe the same thing. Interlocutory is an adjective modifying the provisional, non-final character of an order (as in "interlocutory appeal" or "interlocutory injunction"). Interlocutor is a noun designating a specific instrument — the written order itself, particularly in Scots law. More importantly, while an interlocutory order in American and English practice is by definition non-final, a Scottish interlocutor may be final in effect. Importing the American interlocutory/final distinction into Scottish sources will produce misreadings.
Why It Matters in Research
The chief research trap is jurisdictional conflation. A researcher working with Scottish court records, appeals from the Court of Session, or nineteenth-century British legal materials will encounter interlocutor as the standard term for any court order regardless of finality. Assuming the word signals a non-final or provisional ruling — as American procedural instincts would suggest — leads directly to error. In Scottish practice, the question of whether an interlocutor is final is determined by its content and by whether it has been appealed, not by the label itself.
In American and English materials, interlocutor appears rarely and mostly in older sources. When it does appear, it carries the narrower sense: a ruling made in the course of proceedings that does not dispose of the whole case. Modern American practice has displaced the noun almost entirely in favor of "order" or "ruling," reserving the root word for the adjectival form "interlocutory."
Corpus researchers should also note the citation pattern in the historical dictionaries. Black's and Burrill's rely on the same two Scottish reporters — Swinton and Arkley — for their definitions, suggesting a shared source rather than independent verification. Bouvier's entry is notably more sophisticated, distinguishing between the general procedural sense and the specifically Scottish extended usage. For research purposes, Bouvier's formulation is the more reliable guide to how the term actually functioned in practice.
Finally, the term appears in comparative law discussions and in appellate records where Scottish interlocutors were brought before the House of Lords on appeal. Understanding that such documents may be final in substance despite carrying a label that sounds provisional is essential to correctly characterizing the procedural posture of historical cases.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries agree on the Scottish procedural core but differ in depth and nuance. Black's (both editions) and Burrill's define interlocutor identically and tersely: an order or decree of court, an order made in open court. They cite the same two Scottish reporters and do not address the question of finality. This brevity is a limitation; the definitions are accurate as far as they go but do not equip a researcher to understand how the term functions across different types of Scottish proceedings.
Bouvier's is the standout source here. It correctly observes that in general legal usage the term denotes a non-final judgment, then explicitly flags that Scottish practice extends the term to judgments that do exhaust the point at issue and that can become final if not appealed. Bouvier cites Bell (George Joseph Bell's Commentaries and Principles) and Mozley & Whiteley, both credible references for Scottish law. This distinction — that the same word means something categorically different in Scottish procedure from what it means elsewhere — is the single most important thing to know about this term, and only Bouvier captures it.
None of the historical dictionaries address the term's use in English equity practice or in comparative procedural contexts, nor do they discuss the relationship between interlocutor and the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords over Scottish decisions.
Jurisdictional Note
The term is essentially a term of art in Scottish law and appears only incidentally in English and American sources. Researchers working with English or American materials will encounter it rarely and in older texts; modern practice uses "order" or "ruling" instead. In Scottish legal materials — particularly Court of Session records, Lord Ordinary opinions, and appeals therefrom — interlocutor remains the standard term and carries the full range of meanings described above.