Declaratory dictionary definition

Some of them, however, were in part at least, as they all purported to be, declaratory of ancient usage and remained in force after the royal renunciation.
Recognizing in a declaratory act the legal existence of these common institutions, they also determined the method by which they should be administered.
The essential elements were livery of seisin (delivery of possession), which consisted in formally giving to the feoffee on the land a clod or turf, or a growing twig, as a symbol of the transfer of the land, and words by the feoffor declaratory of his intent to deliver possession to the feoffee with a "limitation" of the estate intended to be transferred.
According to Semitic ideas the declaration of law is quite a distinct function from the enforcing of it, and the royal executive came into no collision with the purely declaratory functions of the priests.
In the Lutheran church also the practice of private confession survived the Reformation, together with both the exhibitive (I forgive, &c.) and declaratory (I declare and pronounce) forms of absolution.

declaratory