Rule

 

“To declare authoritatively : DECIDE, DECREE, DETERMINE;  specifically: to require or command by judicial rule: give as a direction, order, or determination of a court.” 

 

Source:  Webster’s Third New International Dictionary

 

“To command or require by a rule of court; as to rule the sheriff to return the writ, to rule the defendant to plead, to rule against an objection to evidence. To settle or decide a point of law arising upon a trial, and, when it is said of a judge presiding at such a trial that he ‘ruled’ so and so, it is meant that he laid down, settled or decided such and such to be the law.”

 

Source:  Black’s Law Dictionary, 6^th Edition