DECLARATORY JUDGMENT

Statutory remedy for the determination of ajusticiablecontroversy where the plaintiff is in doubt as to his or her legal rights. A binding adjudication of the rights and status of litigants even though no consequential relief is awarded.

Individuals may seek a declaratory judgment after a legal controversy has arisen but before any damages have occurred or any laws have been violated. A declaratory judgment differs from other judicial rulings in that it does not require that any action be taken. Instead, the judge, after analyzing the controversy, simply issues an opinion declaring the rights of each of the parties involved. A declaratory judgment may only be granted in justiciable controversies—that is, in actual, rather than hypothetical, controversies that fall within a court's jurisdiction.

A declaratory judgment, sometimes called declaratory relief, is conclusive and legally binding as to the present and future rights of the parties involved. The parties involved in a declaratory judgment may not later seek another court resolution of the same legal issue unless they appeal the judgment.

Declaratory judgments are often sought in situations involving contracts, deeds, leases, and wills. An insurance company, for example, might seek a declaratory judgment as to whether a policy applies to a certain person or event. Declaratory judgments also commonly involve individuals or parties who seek to determine their rights under specific regulatory or criminal laws.

Declaratory judgments are considered a type of preventive justice because, by informing parties of their rights, they help them to avoid violating specific laws or the terms of a contract. In 1934 Congress enacted the Declaratory Judgment Act (28 U.S.C.A. § 2201 et seq.), which allows for declaratory judgments concerning issues of federal law. At the state level, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws passed the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act (12 U.L.A. 109) in 1922. Between 1922 and 1993, this act was adopted in forty-one states, the Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Most other states have varying laws that provide for declaratory judgments. Most declaratory judgment laws grant judges discretion to decide whether or not to issue a declaratory judgment.

further readings

Howard, Davis J. 1994. "Declaratory Judgment Coverage Actions." Ohio Northern University Law Review 13.

Declaratory Judgments Parties bringing actions in courts usually seek active relief, such as an award of money damages or an injunction. Modern courts, however, can also give passive relief that merely defines legal relations through declaratory judgments.

The traditional, restrictive view of the judicial process limited courts to active relief. Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Willing v. Chicago Auditorium Association (1928), implied that a special barrier to declaratory relief lay in the Constitution's limiting the federal judicial power to cases and controversies. But a practical need for declaratory relief might exist where a dispute has not progressed far enough to authorize active relief or where an aggrieved person does not yet choose to seek active relief; for example, a party to a contract might justifiably want to determine whether certain behavior would be or is a breach. In the 1930s, the Court reversed its previous direction, encouraging and then upholding congressional enactment of the Federal Declaratory Judgment Act of 1934.

So today a federal court may in its discretion give a declaratory remedy in a case that has ripened beyond an abstract question into an actual controversy and that is otherwise within its jurisdiction. Although a state court might be more permissive or restrictive regarding declaratory relief, most states follow the federal approach.

See also Decision‐making Dynamics; Injunctions and Equitable Remedies.

Kevin M. Clermont