Declaratory Judgment a Needed Procedural Reform

Abstract

It is now our purpose to undertake an analysis of numerous declaratory actions and judgments, with a view to determine the scope of and the limitations upon this useful form of procedure. An examination of declaratory judgments in the various jurisdictions in which the institution has been adopted reveals a remarkable similarity of fundamental principles characterizing the practice of making judicial declarations. As our interest is confined to the practice, emphasis will be laid not upon the- decision itself as a matter of substantive law, but rather upon the type of question submitted for declaratory judgment, the cases in which such judgments are rendered, and the limitations placed by the courts upon the exercise of the power to make declarations of rights and of other jural relations.