Decree
A decree is a rule of law usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for this concept may vary from country to country—the executive orders made by the President of the United States, for example, are decrees (although a decree is not exactly an order). In non-legal English usage, however, the term refers to any authoritarian decision.
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Famous quotes containing the word decree:
“Thy brother by decree is banishèd.
If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for him,
I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“In the whole vast dome of living nature there reigns an open violence, a kind of prescriptive fury which arms all the creatures to their common doom: as soon as you leave the inanimate kingdom you find the decree of violent death inscribed on the very frontiers of life.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)