ADJUDICATION is a technical term used in the practice both of the English and Scotch law, but with a totally different meaning in the two systems. In the law English England, theterm A. is commonly used to denote the judicial determination at a certain stage of the proceedings in bankruptcy. The procedure is regulated by :32 and 33 Viet. c. 71. The petition prays that the trader may be adjudicated a bankrupt, and, after proof of the petitioning creditor's debt. and_of the act of bankruptcy (ti.v.). which must have been committed within twelve mouths before the issuing of the fiat, are A. is made by the court that the party is bankrupt. Formerly, a trader might be adjudicated bankrupt summarily, and without previous petition for A.—namely, where, after filing a petition for arrangement with his creditors, he appeared not entitled to the benefit of the arrange ment. See BANKRUPTCY. In insolvency, which differs from bankruptcy in this respect, that it is not confined in its operation to traders, or to any particular class of men, but applies to the community at large, the A. is made by the debtor delivering into the Lon don bankruptcy court, if the debtor resides or carries on business within the district of that court, or in the bankruptcy court of the district within which he resides or curries on business, a declaration admitting his inability to pay his debts, which may be used as the ground of an A. by his creditors, if the court think it requisite; or if the creditors neglect to pass a resolution for liquidation or composition, or resolve in favor of bank ruptcy; or if, after the passing of a resolution for liquidation or composition, the court shall for some sufficient cause adjudge the debtor bankrupt. This A. authorizes the dis charge of the prisoner from custody as to all debts and sums of money due or claimed to he due to his several creditors. Sec INSOLVENCY.
The distinction between bankruptcy and insolvency has for some time been generally disapproved in England; and it may now be held as practically abolished. The insolvent debtors court is abolished, and its jurisdiction transferred to the bankruptcy court. Insolvent persons can now be adjudged bankrupts in every case in which their creditors wish that, or the court think it proper.
In the law of Scotland, A. signifies a process by which creditors may attach heritable or real property of their debtors. It applies to real estate in its most extensive signifi cation, including not only feudal rights, but all rights or interests affecting or connected with land, such as bonds and mortgages, as also annuities, and all rights "having a tract of future time," life-interests, reversions, rights of lease, offices of dignity or jurisdiction, personal rights to lands, a certain class of personal bonds, rights of patronage, stock of any chartered bank, with, where the process of anestment (the process, in the Scotch law, for attaching personal estate; see AltRESTMENT) is excluded, the husband's right in his wife's real estate, fair, harbor and ferry duties, entailed estates during the life of the heir, and the like.
The arrangements for the equitable administration of this law are regulated by various orders of the Scotch courts and by different statutes.
There are various other forms of the A. in the Scotch law, one of the most important and useful of which is called the A.-in-implement, a form of legal proceeding devised for the completion of defective titles to landed property.