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BARE DECLARATIONS
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https://lawjournal.mcgill.ca/article/the-limits-of-the-declaratory-judgment/
Supreme Court of Canada Justice Malcolm Rowe explores how a declaratory judgment defines legal rights but lacks coercive enforcement. In his scholarly work, he emphasizes that the inconsequential nature of this "bare" declaration lies in its inability to award consequential relief or be executed like a traditional monetary or injunctive.
As discussed, this article is concerned with bare declaratory judgments that do not impose any enforceable, consequential relief. Various authors and cases describe a declaration that determines or recognizes legal rights without an order of enforcement or execution as “the essence” of the declaratory judgment.
Show moreThis article is not about declaratory judgments that impose consequential relief, or declaratory relief combined with consequential relief. For example, where a litigant seeks to avoid the operation of a limitation period by seeking a “declaration” that money is payable, this is not a true or bare declaratory judgment.
Bare declarations have been described in various ways by the leading texts. For example, in Canada, Lazar Sarna describes them in the following way:
The declaratory judgment is a judicial statement confirming or denying a legal right of the applicant. Unlike most rulings, the declaratory judgment merely declares and goes no further in providing relief to the applicant than stating his rights. While consequential relief may be joined or appended, the court has the power to issue a pure declaration without coercive direction for its enforcement.
A bare declartion that boundaries of a registered plan of subdivision are greater than shown on the plan would be contrary to law in. s.54 of the Surveys Act in Ontario, which holds boundaries to be true and unalterable, and consequently would not be a stepping stone to obtaining a court order under the Boundaries Act, since courts are bound to apply the law, nor does a decision under the Boundaries Act confer a title ownership under the Land Titles Act..