ACTION FOR A DECLARATORY JUDGMENT AND LEGAL PROTECTION SYSTEM

In the civil law legal system, the action for a declaratory judgment has historically played a pivotal role in the doctrinal division between substantive and procedural law and the understanding of the latter as a distinct and autonomous field of law. The declaratory judgment is still commonly perceived as a purely procedural mechanism, which can be applied, if the plaintiff has an interest in the issuing of a declaratory judgment and regardless of the question if he has a claim against the defendant (pursuant to the respective rules of substantive law). The declaratory judgment differs, thus, from the suit for performance and the action for modification of rights, and it induces a breach to the coherency between procedural and substantive law, which is, as regards the aforementioned two kinds of actions, guaranteed by the modern understanding on the relationship between substantive and procedural law. The author examines the action for a declaratory judgment from a historical and systematic perspective and attempts to restore its connection to the system of substantive law.