Declaration (law)

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In law, a declaration is an authoritative establishment of fact. Declarations take various forms in different legal systems.

Contents

Canon law

In the canon law of the Catholic Church, a declaration of nullity, (commonly called an annulment and less commonly a decree of nullity) [1] is authoritative judgment on the part of an ecclesiastical tribunal juridically establishing the fact that a marriage was invalidly contracted or, less frequently, a judgment juridically establishing the fact that an ordination was invalidly conferred. It does not dissolve a valid bond of marriage, but it is merely a factual declaration of the nullity of the bond.

Common law

In common law, a declaration ordinarily refers to a judgment of the court or an award of an arbitration tribunal that is a binding adjudication of the rights or other legal relations of the parties which does not provide for or order enforcement. Where the declaration is made by a court, it is usually referred to as a declaratory judgment. Less commonly, where declaratory relief is awarded by an arbitrator, it is normally called a declaratory award.

Declaratory relief is most commonly seen in two particular circumstances:

  1. applications for declarations of legitimacy, in family and probate legal proceedings; and
  2. under insurance policies, for a determination of whether a peril is covered by a particular policy.

European Union law

Applications for declaratory relief in other areas have become more widespread, particularly in Europe. A key feature in relation to this development has been the Brussels and Lugano Conventions on civil jurisdiction and judgments relating to members of the European Economic Area (EEA). In certain circumstances, jurisdiction is awarded under the conventions to the courts first seised of the matter. This has led to a rise in defendants taking pre-emptive action by seeking "declarations of non-liability" in a race to the courthouse to ensure that they choose the court first seized rather than waiting for the claimant to do so.[ citation needed ]

Declaratory legislation

An act of parliament or other statute is declaratory if it purports to state authoritatively what is the current state of affairs. By contrast, most statutes are positive law, purporting to order a future state of affairs. In linguistic terms, declaratory legislation is indicative whereas positive law is performative. Two acts of the Parliament of Great Britain asserting its right to legislate for other jurisdictions are commonly called "the Declaratory Act": one in 1719 relating to the Kingdom of Ireland, and another in 1766 relating to the Thirteen Colonies. The "Declaratory Articles" of the Church of Scotland likewise mean to define a status that already existed.

Declaration is used (sometimes rendered as a verb) in other ways in certain legal systems.

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In the Catholic Church, a declaration of nullity, commonly called an annulment and less commonly a decree of nullity is an ecclesiastical tribunal determination and judgment that a marriage was invalidly contracted or, less frequently, a judgment that ordination was invalidly conferred.

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<i>Anisminic Ltd v Foreign Compensation Commission</i> UK constitutional law case

Anisminic Ltd v Foreign Compensation Commission [1969] 2 AC 147 is a UK constitutional law case from the House of Lords in English administrative law. It established the "collateral fact doctrine", that any error of law made by a public body will make its decision a nullity and that a statutory exclusion clause does not deprive the courts from their jurisdiction in judicial review unless it expressly states this.

<i>Plaintiff S157/2002 v Commonwealth</i>

Plaintiff S157/2002 v Commonwealth, also known as 'S157', is a decision of the High Court of Australia.

This collection of lists of law topics collects the names of topics related to law. Everything related to law, even quite remotely, should be included on the alphabetical list, and on the appropriate topic lists. All links on topical lists should also appear in the main alphabetical listing. The process of creating lists is ongoing – these lists are neither complete nor up-to-date – if you see an article that should be listed but is not, please update the lists accordingly. You may also want to include Wikiproject Law talk page banners on the relevant pages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exclusion of judicial review in Singapore law</span> Singapores application of legal concept to protect the exercise of executive power

Exclusion of judicial review has been attempted by the Parliament of Singapore to protect the exercise of executive power. Typically, this has been done though the insertion of finality or total ouster clauses into Acts of Parliament, or by wording powers conferred by Acts on decision-makers subjectively. Finality clauses are generally viewed restrictively by courts in the United Kingdom. The courts there have taken the view that such clauses are, subject to some exceptions, not effective in denying or restricting the extent to which the courts are able to exercise judicial review. In contrast, Singapore cases suggest that ouster clauses cannot prevent the High Court from exercising supervisory jurisdiction over the exercise of executive power where authorities have committed jurisdictional errors of law, but are effective against non-jurisdictional errors of law.

Minister of Health & another v New Clicks SA (Pty) Ltd & others: in re Application for Declaratory Relief is an important case in South African law, with significance especially in the areas of civil procedure and constitutional law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ouster clause</span>

An ouster clause or privative clause is, in countries with common law legal systems, a clause or provision included in a piece of legislation by a legislative body to exclude judicial review of acts and decisions of the executive by stripping the courts of their supervisory judicial function. According to the doctrine of the separation of powers, one of the important functions of the judiciary is to keep the executive in check by ensuring that its acts comply with the law, including, where applicable, the constitution. Ouster clauses prevent courts from carrying out this function, but may be justified on the ground that they preserve the powers of the executive and promote the finality of its acts and decisions.

The term ratum sed non consummatum or ratum et non consummatum refers to a juridical-sacramental category of marriage in Catholic matrimonial canon law. If a matrimonial celebration takes place (ratification) but the spouses have not yet engaged in intercourse (consummation), then the marriage is said to be a marriage ratum sed non consummatum. The Tribunal of the Roman Rota has exclusive competence to dispense from marriages ratum sed non consummatum, which can only be granted for a "just reason". This process should not be confused with the process for declaring the nullity of marriage, which is treated of in a separate title of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.

<i>Craig v South Australia</i> Judgement of the High Court of Australia

Craig v South Australia is a decision of the High Court of Australia.

References

  1. Annulment/Decree of Nullity, EWTN.com, accessed 9/11/2015
  2. Shiflett, Ira (2006). "Goodbye to Affidavits? Improving the Federal Affidavit Substitute Statute". Cleveland State Law Review. 54 (3): 309–336.

Further reading

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Declaration"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 913–914.