relating to the use of or having the nature of a declaration

Making declaration, explanation, or exhibition; making clear or manifest; affirmative; expressive; as, a clause declaratory of the will of the legislature.

Making a declaration; affirmative. declarative.

Making declaration or exhibition; expressive.

Making clear or manifest.

The adoption of a constitution is but declaratory of pre- existing rights and laws; its object is to define and limit the powers of the government, and to guard and protect the rights of the citizens. – Monopolies and the People by D. C. Cloud

Thereupon, early in 1840, Mr. Calhoun introduced resolutions declaratory of international law on this point, and setting forth that England had no right to interfere with, or to permit, the escape of slaves from vessels driven into her ports. – Daniel Webster by Henry Cabot Lodge

In 1768 they gave to the Presidency of Madras the following memorable instruction, strongly declaratory of their general system of policy. – The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VIII. (of 12) by Edmund Burke

I repeat the former declaratory exclamation- I was saved! – Fibble, D. D. by Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb

They were merely declaratory and recommended to the students of Cambridge, where a controversy had arisen regarding grace. – The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election by Robert Wallace

He also recommends, in conformity with the views of the Judge- Advocate- General, some declaratory legislation in reference to the military statute of limitations as applied to the crime of desertion. – Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present by Various

Dr. Madden tells the story; " A month had scarcely elapsed since the opening of the new Irish Parliament in 1782, before Lord Abingdon, in the British House of Peers, moved for leave to bring in a declaratory bill, to reassert the right of England to legislate externally for Ireland, in matters appertaining to the commerce of the latter. – Irish Race in the Past and the Present by Aug. J. Thebaud

It is declaratory and follows the form of a poem, not an argument. – Children of the Market Place by Edgar Lee Masters

Nothing of particular excitement occurring for a considerable time, our countrymen seemed to fall into a state of insensibility to our situation; the duty on tea, not yet repealed, and the declaratory act of a right in the British Parliament, to bind us by their laws in all cases whatsoever, still suspended over us. – Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson by Thomas Jefferson

In 1879 the United Presbyterian Church adopted what is known as the " Declaratory Act," which is a clear departure from the rigid Calvinism of the Confession of Faith. – The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election by Robert Wallace

Constitutional and charter privileges had grown sacred by long and acknowledged usage, by learned and legal construction and by numerous declaratory Acts of the British Parliament passed when sitting under the mantle of reason, justice and sound policy. – Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by L. Carroll Judson

I know it is competent for any legislative body, on a question where difference of opinions exist in relation to any legal proposition, to remove them by declaratory legislation; but that is not the purpose of this bill. – History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States by Wiliam H. Barnes

For let it be remembered, that though the enacting part of this excellent law can respect only future cases, the preamble, which his Lordship doth not cite at large, is declaratory of the common law: and consequently will enable us to judge of the legality of past transactions. – Trial of the Officers and Crew of the Privateer Savannah, on the Charge of Piracy, in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York by A. F. Warburton

Thus, when the Declaratory Act passed, most members of parliament were convinced they had declared their authority to levy taxes even though they had repealed a specific tax, the Stamp Tax. – The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783 by Virginia State Dept. of Education

They hold the Confession dogmas in harmony with the Declaratory Act, but it is an attempt to put the new cloth on the old garment, or the new wine into the old bottles. – The Doctrines of Predestination, Reprobation, and Election by Robert Wallace

A " declaratory statute"- one declaring what a previous statute meant- is therefore, if it gives it a meaning unwarranted by its terms when so interpreted, only effectual as respects future transactions. – The American Judiciary by Simeon E. Baldwin, LLD

Nay, the object of a story is to be long, to fill up hours; the story- teller's art of writing is to water out by continual invention, historical and technical, and yet not seem to water; seem on the other hand to practise that same wit of conspicuous and declaratory condensation which is the proper art of writing. – The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 24 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson Other: Andrew Lang

The decision of the Lord Chancellor, rendered March 18, 1891, declaratory of the personal rights of married women, is a still more important blow by just so much as the rights of person are more sacred than the rights of property. – Eighty Years And More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton

This blockade was declaratory only, and the inadequacy of the force to maintain it was so manifest that this allegation was varied to a charge of trade in contraband of war. – Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present by Various