Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Declaratory
adj. 1. Clearly; manifestly <a declaratory statute>. 2. Explanatory < a declaratory judgment>.
declaratory decree
See declaratory judgment under JUDGMENT.
declaratory judgment
See JUDGMENT.
declaratory judgment.
A binding adjudication that establishes the rights and other legal relations of the parties without providing for or ordering enforcement. ( Declaratory judgments are often sought, for example, by insurance companies in determining whether a policy covers a given insured or peril. - Also termed declaratory decree; declaration. default judgment. See DEFAULT JUDGMENT. See DEFAULT JUDGMENT.
declaratory part of a law
A portion of a law clearly defining rights to be observed or wrongs to be avoided.
declaratory precedent
A precedent that is merely the application of an already existing legal rule.
declaratory statute
A law enacted to clarify prior law by reconciling conflicting judicial decisions or by explaining the meaning of a prior statute.
declaratory theory
The belief that judges' decisions never make law but instead merely constitute evidence of what the law is. ( This antiquated view - held by such figures as Coke and Blackstone - is no longer accepted. "There are ... at least three good reasons why the declaratory theory should have persisted for some time after the modern English doctrine [of precedent] had begun to take shape. In the first place, it appealed to believers in the separation of powers, to whom anything in the nature of judicial legislation would have been anathema. Secondly, it concealed a fact which Bentham was an--?ous to expose, namely, that judge-made law is retrospective in its effect. If in December a court adjudges that someone is liable, in consequence of his conduct during the previous January, it would certainly appear to be legislating retrospectively, unless the liability is based on an earlier Act of Parliament, or unless the court is simply following a previous decision. A way of disguising the retrospective character of such a judgment would be to maintain the doctrine that the court really was doing no more than state a rule which anyone could have deduced from well-known principles or common usage, for the conduct in question would then have been prohibited by the law as it stood in January. The third reason for the persistence of the declaratory theory may be thought to justify its retention in a revised form today. When confronted with a novel point, judges always tend to speak as though the answer is provided by the common law." Rupert Cross & J.W. Harris, Precedent in English Law 30 (4th ed. 1991).
declaratory-judgment act
A federal or state law permitting parties to bring an action to determine their legal rights and positions regarding a controversy not yet ripe for adjudication, as when an insurance company seeks a determination of coverage before deciding whether to cover a claim. See declaratory judgment under JUDGMENT.