Adjudication, in English law, means an order of the Bankruptcy Court, adjudging the debtor to be a bankrupt, and transferring his property to a trustee, under the Bankruptcy Act, 1883. It generally proceeds on a resolution of creditors, and may be avoided by an offer of composition or arrangement (see BANKRUPTCY). The equivalent in Scotland is a decree of sequestration. Adjudication has a totally different meaning in the law of Scotland. It is a proceeding in court to take the heritable property of a debtor in satisfaction of debt, or to make up a title to heritable property where an agreement has been made to transfer it, and also in certain cases of intestacy.
In the United States, adjudication is used generally as the act or process of trying and determining judicially; it is the judgment of a court. Adjudication is also used specifically as the act of a court declaring a person bankrupt.