The onset of an edge crack in compressive layers of a ceramic laminate undergoing residual stresses is predicted using the stress–energy coupled criterion based on the data of the tensile strength and the toughness of the material under consideration. The proposed criterion does not contain any adjustable parameter, which is its indisputable advantage. The results of predictions of the edge crack nucleation are in a very good agreement with the experimental observations of this phenomenon. They allow us to recover and even to improve slightly an approximate formula to estimate the critical layer thickness as a function of the compressive residual stress that was proposed some years ago.