Bill of Peace was an English court practice used in the 17th and 18th centuries for legal disputes involving multiple parties that shared common aspects. It allowed the English Court of Chancery to settle the rights of parties, a group known as the "multitude", in one suit, in equity court.FindLaw, Litigation Issues: What is a Class Action?
/ref> If the equity court allowed the matter to proceed as a Bill of Peace, the results of the suit would bind all members of the “multitude,” whether they actually appeared in the case or not. The Bill was limited until 1873 to equitable relief, including an injunction, an accounting or a type of

declaratory judgment A declaratory judgment, also called a declaration, is the legal determination of a court that resolves legal uncertainty for the litigants. It is a form of legally binding preventive by which a party involved in an actual or possible legal ma ...

called a “decree.” It could not be used for monetary relief and in this respect was similar to a representative action. The practice was also used in the United States in

mass tort A mass tort is a civil action involving numerous plaintiffs against one or a few defendants in state or federal court. The lawsuits arise out of the defendants causing numerous injuries through the same or similar act of harm (e.g. a prescription dr ...

or similar situations in the 19th and early 20th centuries.A DISTANT MIRROR: THE BILL OF PEACE IN EARLY AMERICAN MASS TORTS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR MODERN CLASS ACTIONS, Thomas D. Rowe, Jr.
/ref> Justice

Joseph Story Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 – September 10, 1845) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from 1812 to 1845. He is most remembered for his opinions in ''Martin v. Hunter's Lessee'' and '' United States ...

, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845, advocated the development of the Bill of Peace in the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States used the Bill of Peace concepts in development of the implementation of

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

litigation. This evolution continued with Federal Equity Rule 48, in place in the United States from 1842 to 1912, which provided for a class action.LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD IN THE GARDEN STATE: A GUIDE TO NEW JERSEY CLASS ACTION CASE LAW
page 5 The origins of the Bill of Peace practices, as well as

lawsuits, may be centuries earlier, beginning as early as 1309 in the decisions of the English quasi-judicial counsel then known as the “General Eyre."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bill Of Peace English legal terminology