Ruling, decision, decree of an official authority (from decernere). Legal texts, in their own peculiar language which does not fully conform with modern conceptions, use decretum primarily in relation to the following organs of authority: 1. praetors and provincial governors; 2. emperors; 3. the Senate; 4. decurions; 5. priestly colleges; 6. the councils (in the Christian period).
1. Gai. Inst. 4,140 divided judicial decrees of the praetor into decreta and interdicta , depending on whether the praetor positively ordered something, such as the produc…