FIAT
[Latin, Let it be done.] In old English practice, a short order or warrant of a judge or magistrate directing some act to be done; an authority issuing from some competent source for the doing of some legal act.
One of the proceedings in the English BANK-
RUPTCY practice: a power, signed by the lord chan-
cellor and addressed to the court of bankruptcy,
authorizing the petitioning creditor to prosecute
his complaint before that court. By the statute 12
& 13 Vict., c. 116, fiats were abolished.
