Definition
A Latin term appearing in old Scotch law and civil law contexts with two related but distinct uses:
1. Award or arbitrament. The decision or determination rendered by arbitrators; the formal conclusion of an arbitration proceeding. Equivalent in function to what modern law calls an arbitral award.
2. Sentence or judgment. In old Scotch law specifically, a judicial sentence, judgment, or doom — the solemn pronouncement of legal determination by a tribunal or court.
The two senses are connected by a common thread: laudum denotes any authoritative, binding pronouncement that resolves a dispute or declares legal consequence, whether issued by arbitrators or by a court.
Common Confusion
LAUDUM vs. DOOM/DOME: In old Scotch law, doom or dome (from the Old English and Scots legal vocabulary) describes the same concept as laudum in its judgment sense — a formal pronouncement of legal sentence. The dictionaries use doom as a gloss for laudum, but the terms are not interchangeable across sources: doom is vernacular Scots, laudum is Law Latin. Encountering one in a source does not guarantee the other will appear nearby.
LAUDUM vs. ARBITRAMENTUM: In Latin legal texts, arbitramentum is the more technically precise term for an arbitral award. Laudum in the arbitrament sense is a usage variant, not a separate concept. A researcher who finds laudum in a civil law context should check whether arbitramentum appears in parallel sources covering the same subject.
Why It Matters in Research
LAUDUM is an archaic term encountered almost exclusively in pre-modern Scottish legal records and in Latin legal texts drawing on civil law tradition. Researchers working in early Scottish criminal or civil proceedings — particularly records predating systematic codification — may encounter it as a synonym for judgment or award where no modern procedural equivalent is explicitly named.
The primary research trap is conflation: a laudum in Scotch law sources functions as a final judgment of doom (sentence), while in civil and continental legal contexts it refers to an arbitral award. These are procedurally distinct, and misreading one for the other can distort interpretation of whether a matter was adjudicated by a tribunal or settled by private arbitration.
The citation appearing across all four source dictionaries — 1 Pitc. Crim. Tr. pt. 2, p. 8 — refers to Robert Pitcairn's Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland, the foundational collection of early Scottish criminal records. Researchers tracing laudum in original sources should go directly to Pitcairn; the dictionaries are essentially relaying his usage rather than providing independent authority.
For corpus researchers: laudum will not appear in American common law sources in any operative sense. If it surfaces in American legal documents, it is likely in a historical quotation, a civil law discussion, or a translation context. It has no living doctrinal significance in U.S. law.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries agree closely, with only minor variation in presentation. All recognize the dual meaning — arbitral award and judicial sentence — and all anchor the Scotch law usage to Pitcairn. The consensus is unusual in its tightness, suggesting the dictionaries are drawing from a shared stream rather than independent research.
Burrill's is the most precise in characterization, labeling the term "L. Lat." (Law Latin) and restricting the entry to the Scotch law judgment sense without separately developing the arbitrament meaning — a choice that reflects Burrill's general preference for historical precision over doctrinal breadth. Bouvier and both editions of Black's treat the arbitrament sense as the primary meaning and the Scotch law sense as secondary, which is the more practically useful framing for general legal research.
None of the dictionaries explain why a single Latin term came to cover both arbitral awards and judicial sentences. The functional overlap is real — both are authoritative resolutions — but the procedural distinction between court judgment and arbitral award is significant enough that the conflation in definition deserves notice. Researchers should not assume a source using laudum means arbitration simply because one dictionary definition leads with that sense.
Jurisdictional Note
LAUDUM is a term of old Scotch law and civil law tradition. It carries no operative meaning in English common law or American law. Its relevance is confined to historical Scottish legal records and to scholarly or comparative discussions of civil law arbitration.