INTERDICT. In Civil Law. The formula according to which the pretor ordered or forbade anything to be done in a cause con cerning true or quasi possession until it should be decided definitely who' had a right to it. But in modern civil law it is an ex traordinary action, by which a summary deci sion is had in questions of possession or quasi possession. Heineccius, Elem. Jur. Civ. § 1287. Interdicts are either prohibitory, re stitutory, or exhibitory ; the first being a pro hibition, the second a decree for restoring possession lost by force, the third a decree for the exhibiting of accounts, etc.; id. 1290; Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 252; Dig. 4, 15, 2. It is said by the writers of the Institutes that some (including Gahm) thought that from the true etymology of the word interdict, it should be applied only to prohibitory orders, and that those which were restitutory or ex hibitory were properly decreta, but that "the usage has obtained of calling them all inter dicts as they are pronounced between two parties, inter duos dicuntur r id. Interdicts were decided by the praetor without the in tervention of a judeo, differing in this from actions (actiones).
According to Isidorus, however, the deriva tion is from quod interim dicitur. See Voc. Jur. Utr.; Sand. Just. 489; Mackeldey, Civ. Law § 258-64. In the formulary procedure the interdict was preliminary and conserva tive, and afterwards made final or not ac cording to the result of the litigation. Aft
er the disappearance of this procedure "no doubt the remedies remained by the forms of action which succeeded. Some of the most important of these were really injunctions, either prohibitory or mandatory." Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 253. Like an injunction, the interdict was merely personal in its effects ; and it had also another similarity to it, by being temporary or perpetual. Dig. 43. 1. 1, 3, 4. This similitude prompts the suggestion by the author last quoted, that "it is easy to perceive how they may• have been adopted from the Roman and Canon law into the equity practice of England, and thence into that of .America;" Howe, Stud. Civ. L. 254. See Story, Eq. Jur. § 865; Halifax, Anal. eh. 6. See INJUNCTION.
In Ecclesiastical Law. An ecclesiastical censure, by which divine services are pro hibited either to particular persons or par ticular places. These tyrannical edicts, is sued by ecclesiastical powers, have been abolished in England since the reformation, and were never known in the United States. See 2 Burn, Eccl. Law 340. Baptism was allowed during an interdict ; but the eucha rist was denied, except in the article of death, and burial in consecrated ground was de nied, unless, without sacred offices. For the ancient form of an interdict, see Tomlin's L. Diet. h. t.