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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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EDICT, n. Sc. law.

1. A proclamation made formerly in some public place whereby those concerned were summoned to appear before the courts; now obs. (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 31).

Hence (1) edictal citation, a mode of citing persons to court who cannot be found personally or who are abroad; formerly performed as explained in 1890 quot. and now by sending copies of the summons to the office of the Keeper of Edictal Citations in Edinburgh (Ib.); applied also to the equivalent procedure in Church usage: cf. 3; (2) edictally, by means of an edict.(1) Sc. 1703 Fountainhall Decisions II. 201:
Where parties are out of the country, our law and practice hitherto knows no other way of summoning them, but by edictal citations at the market-cross of Edinburgh, as the communis patria for all Scotchmen, and the pier and shore of Leith.n.Sc. 1726 in D. Sage Memorabilia Domestica (1889) 7:
Appointing the said Mr Archibald Ballantyne to give an edictal citation from the pulpit to heritors, wadsetters, life-renters of the parish of Lochbroom.Sc. 1837 J. G. Lockhart Scott III. iv. 160:
All edictal citations [for Shetland] are made at Scalloway.Sc. 1890 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 351:
In criminal prosecutions . . . if the accused was not found personally, in addition to leaving a copy of the indictment or criminal letters at his dwelling place he was edictally cited at the market-cross of the head burgh of the county where he resided, and a copy left there for him . . . and in order that such edictal citation might be the more public . . . it should be given . . . “in presence of famous witnesses specially designed” . . . if he was out of Scotland . . . at the market-cross of Edinburgh and the pier and shore of Leith.Sc. 1945 J. T. Cox Practice C. of Scot. 283:
Edictal Citation is citation by public intimation and is used only for citing a body or bodies, or for citing a minister who has absconded.(2) Sc. 1887 Scotsman (31 Jan.) 10/2:
On 19th November she charged him edictally to make payment.

†2. A writ formerly issued by the commissaries for citing those concerned upon the application of a person seeking to have executors appointed (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 31).

3. In Church usage: “a legally authoritative public intimation” from the pulpit (Sc. 1945 J. T. Cox Practice C. of Scot. 771).Bnff. 1721 in J. F. S. Gordon Chrons. Keith (1880) 96:
This day, after sermon was published ane edict, summoning the representatives of Kempcairn . . . to compeir before the Pbty. of Strathboggie.Sc. 1803 G. Hill Theolog. Institutes 207:
All who have any objections to his [new minister's] life or doctrine are summoned, by a paper read from the pulpit, which we call an edict, to appear on the day appointed for his ordination.Sc. 1945 J. T. Cox Practice C. of Scot. 99:
Citation by edict is citation by public intimation.