Lord Broughamlaid upon the Table a bill for the purpose of remedying a defect in the law, the existence of which had been found very inconvenient. The bill proposed to introduce into the law of England, and the practice of the courts of law and equity, a proceeding long known in the Scotch law and practised in Scotch courts, and the want of which in English practice had long been a subject of great regret. It was what was called in Scotland a declaratory action, a proceeding by means of which a person in possession, and dreading that his title might be disturbed when evidence in support of it might not be forthcoming—or by means of which a person not in possession and wishing to ascertain his rights, although no suit was pending between the parties—had the means of obtaining a declaratory decree of a court, either of law or equity as the case might be, in order to set forth and conclusively to establish between himself and those deriving right from him on the one side, and the parties called as the defendants to the suit on the other—the right to the property or status as the case might be. The bill applied to suits of any kind.
§ Bill read a first time.