1. An established standard, guide, or regulation; a principle or regulation set up by authority, prescribing or directing action or forbearance ; as, the rules of a legislative body, of a company, court, public office, of the law, of ethics. 2. A regulation made by a court of justice or public office with reference to the conduct of business therein. 3. An order made by a court, at the instance of one of the parties to a suit, com- manding a ministerial officer , or the opposite party , to do some act, or to show cause why some act should not be done. It is usually upon some interlocutory matter, and has not the force or solemnity of a decree or judgment. 4. “Rule” sometimes means a rule of law . Thus, we speak of the rule against perpetuities ; the rule In Shelley’s Case, etc.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
