fiat:
- an arbitrary or authoritative command or order
- formal or official authorization or sanction
Example: Americans tend to squirm about the messiness of their two best-known trade agreements with Japan: the "voluntary limitations" that have restricted exports of Japanese cars to the United States since 1981, and the semiconductor agreement of 1986, which declared by fiat that foreign manufacturers should get 20 percent of semiconductor sales in Japan. [Reference: James Fallows, "Containing Japan", The Atlantic , May 1989]
