English

Adjective

declinatory ‎(not comparable)

1. (law, obsolete or historical) Containing or involving a declination or refusal, as of submission to a charge or sentence.
   • 1765, Sir William Blackstone, The Student's Blackstone: Commentaries on the Laws of England, in Four Books, published 1865:

     […] that the prisoner should first be arraigned, and might either then claim his benefit of clergy, by way of declinatory plea, or after conviction by way of arresting judgment.

   • 1901, Henry Lastrapes Garland, editor, Code of Practice of Louisiana: With Annotations of Henry L. Garland:

     Declinatory exceptions do not tend to defeat the demand, but only to decline the jurisdiction of the judge before whom it is brought.

   • 2014, John O. Haley, Fundamentals of Transnational Litigation: The United States, Canada, Japan, and The European Union:

     That case, like the present one, involved a declinatory exception by the respondent State when it was sued for fees for legal services and for an accounting.

Related terms

• declinatory plea