"involving or pertaining to adjudication," 1809; see adjudicate + -ive. Perhaps modeled on French adjudicatif. Especially in law, "useful in determining the outcome of a case."
Entries linking to adjudicative
adjudicate v.
"pronounce judgement upon, reward judicially," 1700, a back-formation from adjudication, or else from Latin adiudicatus, past participle of adiudicare "grant or award as a judge" (see adjudge). Related: Adjudicated; adjudicating.
-ive
word-forming element making adjectives from verbs, meaning "pertaining to, tending to; doing, serving to do," in some cases from Old French -if, but usually directly from Latin adjectival suffix -ivus (source also of Italian and Spanish -ivo). In some words borrowed from French at an early date it has been reduced to -y (as in hasty, tardy).