EDICT, a public proclamation of laws made by a ruler or superior magistrate. In ancient Rome, the higher officers of state, who were elected annually, publicly declared, at their en trance upon office, the principles by which they should conduct their administration. This was done particularly by the wdiles, who superin tended buildings and markets, and by the prx tors, as supreme judges. These annual procla mations, by which the deficiencies of the general statutes were supplied, and the laws were adapted to the peculiar wants of the period, gradually acquired a certain permanency, as each officer retained, unaltered, most of the regula tions of his predecessor (edictum tralatitium); and they became, in fact, the source of that branch of Roman law which, being founded on the official authority of the authors, was called jus honorarium, and was opposed to the strictly formal law, ius civile. However, according to Roman jurists these usually indirect forms of legislation had their object in rendering the civil law more expedient to the public welfare, and always received the seal of the people's ap proval. Edicts were sometimes made for some
special occasion, in which case they were called edicta repentina. It was against the abuse of this kind of edicts that the Lex Cornelia in 67 s.c. was directed. Those which were applicable in all cases during the tenure of office of the magistrate who issued them were called edicta perpetua. The name of edictum perpetuum was also given to a collection and arrangement of the clauses which the praetors were accustomed to put into their annual edicts, made under the Emperor Hadrian by Salvius Julianus about 131 A.D. What the exact nature of the work thus done by Julianus was is not known, but the edict prepared by him, and sanctioned by Imperial au thority, had unquestionably a special force, and it is likely that it restricted in future the right enjoyed by magistrates of issuing edicts, to such cases as were notprovided for in the edict of Julianus. Only a few fragments of the ancient Roman edicts been preserved by Wieling in Edicti P'erpetui) (Frankfort 1733). See CIVIL LAw.