A court edict (3)

I believe the answer is:

act

'edict' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'a court' is the wordplay.
'court' becomes 'ct'.
'a'+'ct'='ACT'

(Other definitions for act that I've seen before include "Major division of play" , "Perform theatrically" , "Assumed attitude" , "Take part in a play" , "performing group" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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