Decree, or, as it is frequently called in Scotland, a Decreet, is a final judgment of a court, whereby the question at issue is set at rest. In England, it used to be commonly applied to the final judgments of courts of equity. For a decree nisi, see DIVORCE. Decree in absence, in Scotland, is equivalent to a judgment by default in a common-law court.
In the United States, a decree is the order or judgment of a court of equity, admiralty, or a common-law court with equity powers. It may be either final or interlocutory, and is conclusive if all parties in interest have been served with proper notice. It cannot be set aside by an act of congress or the state legislature. By the United States Constitution, the decrees of a competent court having full jurisdiction in one state are equally binding in every other state, and must be received in evidence in all the courts of the United States.