1.An official or authoritative command, order, or authorization from a superior official to a subordinate; an order or injunction; a commission; a judicial precept. "This dream all-powerful Juno; I bear Her mighty mandates, and her words you hear."
2.Hence: (Politics) An authorization to carry out a specific public policy, given by the electorate to their representatives; it is considered to be implied by the election of a candidate by a significant margin after that candidate has campaigned with that policy as a prominent element of the campaign platform.
3.Hence: Authorization by a multinational body to a nation to administer the government and affairs of a territory, usually a former colony; as, termination of the British mandate in Palestine.
4.(Canon Law) A rescript of the pope, commanding an ordinary collator to put the person therein named in possession of the first vacant benefice in his collation.
5.(Scots Law) A contract by which one employs another to manage any business for him. By the Roman law, it must have been gratuitous.
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