Legislative Precedents Vol II

THE TITLES An Act of Parliament usually has a ‘long title’ and a ‘short title’. In some Commonwealth jurisdictions it is a matter of choice whether the short title comes at the end of the Act or as the first section of the Act. The long title is usually placed at the beginning of the Act and before the ‘enacting formula’.

It is a matter of preference whether one uses numerals or words. ‘1990’ shows out clearer than ‘one thousand nine hundred and ninety’. Yet a typographical error of ‘1990’ for ‘1996’ may not be easy to discover until, perhaps, it is too late. But it has never been a problem stating the calendar year in numerals rather than in words.

In Cabell v Markham Justice Learned Hand stated that it is ‘… well to remember that statutes always have some purpose or object to accomplish, whose sympathetic and imaginative discovery is the surest guide to their meaning’. Thus difficulties of interpretation may lead to an amendment of an Act of

Long title

In a repealing provision, does not the expression ‘is hereby repealed’ contain

Example 1 is definite. There can be no argument about the date. It is thus

An Act of Parliament applies to all parts of a country. But due to the constitutional arrangements of the United Kingdom, for example, an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament may be enacted to extend to Northern Ireland or to apply to Scotland. In a federal state, an Act of the federal parliament would apply to all the states or provinces of the federation. However,

An Act of Parliament occasionally provides that a person or an authority should give notice. There is a constitutional requirement in a number of written constitutions that an Act of Parliament shall not come into force unless it is published in the Gazette. That is a constitutional requirement that notice of the Act should be given for the benefit of those to whom the Act is to apply. If

As has so far been demonstrated, an Act of Parliament may not be complete in itself. Further legislative provisions would be required in order to make the law work. Parliament would thus confer power on a person or an authority to clothe, as it were, the dry bones of the Act with flesh by means the issuance of, say, Regulations. The enabling enactment takes many forms.

An enabling enactment may provide for the amendment of an Act of Parliament by virtue of the delegated power. This is not normally advisable. The Act, when so amended, becomes wholly incomplete, for the amendments would primarily be in subsidiary legislation and not in the statute book as such. An amending Act is preferable. However, there would be no objection

GENERAL We all owe a duty to obey an Act of Parliament. An Act is almost invariably addressed to a person or a group of persons. A person to whom an Act is addressed is under a legal duty to obey the Act. That person may be a private individual or a corporation or other public body. Sanctions are often imposed

In some jurisdictions an Act of Parliament may provide that:

Under the criminal law, offences were either felonies or misdemeanours. Misdemeanours were lower offences, punishable by a fine, forfeiture or imprisonment otherwise than in a penitentiary. A felony was a serious offence. A simple assault was a misdemeanour. An aggravated assault was a

All governments operate under a Consolidated Fund. It is a fund into which all government moneys are paid. All revenues go into the Consolidated Fund, unless Parliament otherwise directs. All government expenditures are paid out of the Consolidated Fund. Moneys in the Consolidated Fund cannot be