EDICT (Lat. edictum). The power of making edicts (jus ediondi) belonged generally to the higher magistrates at Rome; but it was by the curule aediles, and more extensively stilt by two prntors—the prtetor urbanus, and the prator peregrinus—that it was promi nently exercised. In a province, the jurisdiction of the prtetor passed to the presses. As this power was co-extensive with the possession of what were called the honors (honores), it was frequently spoken of as the jus honorarium: and from its being exercised chiefly by the prntors, it was also known as the juspratorium. The edicts of the prfetors are mentioned by Gains among the sources of the Roman law; but, strictly speaking, they are to be considered as rules promulgated by the magistrates on entering on office, rather than as expressions of the will of the Roman people, either direct or indirect. The E. of one prtetor was not binding on his successor, but very often edicts were adopted and confirmed, and this came gradually to constitute a -very important body of law. They were frequently known by the names of their first promulgators, though they were often named with reference to the formula and the actin which they established. The power •of promulgating edicts is supposed to have flowed down from the kings to the consuls, and through them to the prtors, and thus to have formed part of what we should call the royal prerogative. Even in Cicero's time, the study of the E. had become a regular branch of the study of the law. In 67 B.c., the Lex Cornelia provided against the abuse of passing edicts for the decision of particular cases by requiring the praetors to -decide in conformity with the edicts which they promulgated with reference to their -whole tenure of office, which were known as perpetual edicts. Servius Sulpicius, the
friend of Cicero, addressed to Brutus a work on the subject; and Ofilius made what was probably a compilation of the various edicts, resembling the subsequent one by Julian. The object of the E., according to the Roman jurists, was to aid, supplement, and cor rect the civil law, and to render it more conducive to the public service, and they speak -of it as " the living voice of the civil law." It was, in short, an indirect form of legis• lation, which public opinion had, sanctioned for the public convenience; and there can be no doubt that it contributed what was ultimately the most valuable part of the Roman. law. There were many commentators on the edicts under the emperors, amongst whom Labeo is mentioned ana cited by Ulpian (Dig. 4, tit. 3, s. 9). Julian is supposed to have collected and arranged the edicts, and given to them a systematic form. Gains, Ulpian, and Paulus composed treatises on the edicts of the curule mdiles; and it is chiefly from the writings of these and the other jurists excerpted in the Digest, that we know any thing of the character of the E., the portions of it which have been preserved being mere fragments. They have been collected by Wieling in his Fragments Edkti Per yetui (Frank. 1733).