STATUTE LAW IN

BRITAIN
Unit 3
Preview
1. Introduction: statute, legislation, parliament
2. Common law vs. Statute law
3. Parliamentary sovereignty
3. Parliament: functions, composition
4. House of Commons: elections
5. House of Lords: hereditary peers, life peers
6. Law-making procedure
7. Types of bills
8. Statute book
9. Statutory interpretation
10. Legal terms
11. Exercises
Statute: Definition
An established written law, especially an
Act of Parliament
An express and formal laying-down of a
rule or rules of conduct to be observed in
the future by persons to whom the
statute is expessly, or by implication,
made applicable

Parliament: Definition
Elected group of representatives who
form the legislative body which votes the
laws of a country
Legislation
The process of making or enacting a positive
law in written form, according to some type of
formal procedure, by a branch of government
constituted to perform this process
Also: lawmaking; statute-making
Translation equivalents:
Zakonodavstvo; donoenje zakona
Common law vs. statute law
In todays world: a need for new law to
meet new situations
Precedent not suitable for major
changes to the law, nor is it sufficiently
quick, efficient law-making method for a
modern society
Common law vs. statute law
Judges - not elected by the people
In a democracy, laws should only be
made by the elected representatives of
society
The main legislative body in the UK:
Parliament
Common law v. Statute law
Statute Judgment
(a) Creates new law

(b) Lays down general rules for
the guidance of future
conduct
(c) Is imperative
Usually disclaims any attempt to
create new law
Usually applies an existing law
to a particular set of
circumstances
Gives reasons
Statute law
Laws passed by Parliamnet: Acts of
Parliament or statutes
60-70 Acts passed each year
Parliament
The only body which has the right to
enact a new law, or alter or reverse a
law which Parliament itself has passed
Any law passed by Parliament which
clashes with, or alters or reverses any
part of the common law automatically
takes precedence
The Sovereignty of Parliament
Parliament is legislatively supreme and
can make and unmake (=repeal) laws to
any extent
Any Act passed by Parliament which is
of general application is absolutely
binding on all persons within the sphere
of Parliaments jurisdiction
Sovereignty of Parliament
However controversial a particular
statute may be, a judge is bound to
enforce its provisions, although there
may be some scope for judges to
interpret a new statute in a particular
way
EU law takes precedence in the event of
conflict with statute or common law

Functions of Parliament
To pass laws
To provide, by voting for taxation, the
means of carrying on the work of
government
To scrutinise government policy and
administration
To debate the major issues of the day

The British Parliament
The Queen
The House of Commons
The House of Lords
The House of Commons

Members of Parliament (MPs) not
members of the nobility but ordinary
common people known as commoners
Elections
The UK: 646 geographical parts:
constituencies
At least once every five years a General
Election is held
Those who wish to stand for Parliament
are called candidates
Elections
The candidate who gets the most votes
in a constituency is elected to become its
MP
Most MPs belong to political parties
(Conservative, Labour, or Liberal
Democrat MP)
Elections
Candidates voted for as individuals
If for instance a Labour MP resigns or
dies while in office, another Labour
candidate will not automatically take
over; there must be a new election in this
constituency (by-election)

Elections
Each political party manifesto: a
document setting out its aims and the
policies it proposes to implement to
achieve them
Elections
The party with an overall majority of MPs
- asked by the Queen to form the
Government
Prime Minister is appointed to lead the
Government
He forms his Cabinet from the important
members of his party
Elections
When no one party has a sufficient majority, or
when a national emergency occurs, a coalition
government may be formed by two or more
parties temporarily uniting
The Cabinet forms its policies of government
and turns to legislation as the means of carrying
the policies into effect, e.g. The Local
Government Act, 1972
The House of Commons
Elected by universal adult suffrage
The chief officer of the House of
Commons the Speaker, elected by
MPs to preside over the House
The House of Lords
Lords Spiritual
Lords Temporal
Lords Spiritual
Archbishops of Canterbury and York and
leading Bishops, representatives of the
Church of England (26 in total)

Lords Temporal
Hereditary Peers
Life Peers
Hereditary peers
Those whose titles are passed down
from generation to generation
peers by succession they have
succeeded to the titles of their ancestors

The House of Lords Act 1999
Hereditary peers lost the right to sit and
vote in the House of Lords; 92 hereditary
peers allowed to remain in the House for
a transitional period
A small number have been made Life
Peers
Life Peers
Peers for their lifetime; cannot pass their
titles on to their children
Distinguished in politics, education,
business, law, arts, etc.
Membership in the House of Lords: a
wide range of highly talented people
The House of Lords
Not able to change or delay any laws
which relate to finance and taxation
Power to hold up legislation of which
they disapprove for a certain period of
time
Power to check, influence or alter
legislation
Parliament Act 1911
If a Bill is passed by the House of
Commons but rejected by the House of
Lords twice in two successive years, it
may immediately be presented to the
Queen for her Assent without obtaining
the Lords further approval
Law-Making Procedure
1. Preparatory stage
2. First Reading
3. Second Reading
4. Committee stage
5. Report stage
6. Third Reading
7. Passage through the other House
8. Royal Assent
Preparatory stages
The government may initiate a
consultative process by the publication
of a Green Paper to attract public
response and comment
Preparatory stage
The governments White Papers contain
their more definite proposals; often
published following consultation or
discussion with pressure groups,
professional bodies, or voluntary
organisations

First Reading
The title of the prepared Bill is read to
the House of Commons
Acts as a notification of the proposed
measure
The Bill is printed and published
Second reading
The Minister or Member in charge of the
Bill explains its purpose and the main
issues of policy involved
The debate limited to the purpose of
the Bill and the means proposed for
giving it effect
The House votes on the Bill
If the Bill survives the vote it passes to
the next stage
Committee stage
The Bill is dealt with by:
A) A committee of the whole House,
B) A select committee, or
C) A standing committee

Committee Stage
A Select Committee constituted on a
party basis, while a Standing Committee
is composed of 20-50 Members
appointed to examine Public Bills, which,
after a second reading, are not passed
to a committee of the whole House or to
Select Committees
The purpose: to consider the details of
the Bill clause by clause
The Report stage
The committee reports back to the
House, and any proposed amendments
are debated and voted upon
The amendments made in the committee
are considered by the House, which may
make any additional amendments
Third Reading
A Bill is reviewed in its final form and
may be debated again
The debate is confined to verbal
amendments only, not the principles of
the Bill
Passage through the other
House
After the third reading a Commons Bill is
sent to the Lords where it has to pass all
the required stages again
Amendments made by the second
House must be agreed by the first, or a
compromise reached, before a Bill can
become law
Passage through the other
House
If agreement is impossible, the
Commons can invoke its powers under
the Parliament Acts, 1911 and 1949
whereby it may present the Bill for Royal
Assent after one year without the
agreement of the Lords
A Money Bill must originate in the
Commons and may be delayed by the
Lords for one month only
Royal Assent

When a Bill has passed through all its
parliamentary stages, it is sent to the
Queen for Royal Assent, after which it is
part of the law of the land and known as
an Act of Parliament
The Royal Assent has not been refused
since 1707
Royal Assent
May be given by the Queen personally or by
three Lords Commissioners
The Royal Assent Act, 1967, provides that an
Act is duly enacted if the Royal Assent is
notified to each House of Parliament, sitting
separately, by the Speaker of that House
When Royal Assent is given, the Bill becomes
an Act of Parliament and takes effect
immediately
Types of Bills
Public Bills introduced by the
Government
Private Members Bills proposed by
MPs
Private Bills proposed by a local
authority, etc.
Public Bills
Written by parliamentary counsel who
specializes in drafting legislation
Presented to Parliament by Government
ministers and change the general law of
the whole country
Private MembersBills
At the beginning of a Parliamentary
Session (a session lasts one year), the
Cabinet lays down its legislative
programme
It is still possible for a Private Member
(i.e. an MP who is not a member of the
Government) to introduce a Bill
Private Members Bills
If the Private Members Bill is of general
importance and receives the suport of
the House it may be adopted by the
Government and so form part of its
legislative programme

Private Members Bills
Relatively few Private Members Bills
become law, but some important laws
have been passed as result of such Bills:
Matrimonial Causes Act, 1937, Murder
(Abolition of Death Penalty) Act, 1965
Abortion Act 1967, Marriage Act 1994
Private Bills
Two types:
1) Local
2) Personal
Local Bills
Purely local matters
Where a local authority or other public
body wishes to acquire additional
powers not available under the general
law, it may obtain them by the promotion
of a private Bill
Local Bills
Construction or alteratikon of bridges,
canals, docks, ports, roads, railways,
tramways, waterworks, etc.;
extending the powers of local
authorities,
gas, electricity or other public utility
undertakings
Personal Bills
Relate to private estates, names,
naturalization, divorce, peerage etc.
Obsolescence
Social conditions change
Some case law may therefore have to be
disregarded on account of obsolescence
Statute law does not become obsolate
on account of age
Obsolescence
Ashford v. Thornton (1818): the plaintiff
aserted that a right to trial by battle was
available to him under a statute of Henry
II
This long forgotten statute was repealed
the year after its existence was revealed
by the plaintiffs application
Obsolescence
The Treason Act, 1351, is still law
despite its age, and was invoked in 1946
to prosecute a British subject
broadcasting enemy propaganda during
the Second World War (Joyce v. Director
of Public Prosecutions, 1946)
Obsolescence
Though statute law does not become
obsolete by reason of age, there are
some Acts which are so inappropriate
that in practice they are not enforced:
e.g. The Sunday Observance Act, 1677,
forbids meetings of people out of their
parishes on Sunday for any sports or
pastimes
Statute book
All laws passed by Parliament which are
still in force
There should be no conflict of meaning
between a new statute and an old one
The state of the statute book
In theory the whole of the law could be
set out clearly and logically in statutory
form; decided cases would be useful
only as interpreting the statutes, and
important decisions could be
incorporated by amendment
In practice: the same subject may be
divided between many statutes and the
same statute may contain bits of several
subjects

Consolidation and Codification
A statute and its amending Acts can be
gathered together into a single
consolidating Act, but even a
consolidation statute is unlikely to state
the whole law on the subject
The process of setting out both statute
law and common law is called
codification
Codification
Codification may mean a complete
statement of all the law of a given State,
and not, as in England, certain parts only
The French Civil Code, Germany,
Switzerland
Citation of statutes
1) by the short title, which includes the
calender year (e.g. The Fatal Accidents
Act 1846)
2) by the regnal year or years and the
chapter (e.g. 9 & 10 Vict. c. 93)
3) a compromise of the two (e.g. The
Fatal Accidents Act 1846 (c. 93)
The chapter indicates the number of the
statute
The parts of a statute
The main body of a statute is divided into
sections, and sections may be divided
into subsections
A subdivision following an opening part
is called a paragraph
Subsections have a number in brackets
while paragraphs have a letter in
brackets
The Theft Act 1968, s. 21
(1) A person is guilty of blackmail if, with a view
to gain for himself or another or with intent to
cause loss to another, he makes any
unwarranted demand with menaces; and for
this purpose a demand with menaces is
unwarranted unless the person making it does
so in the belief
(a) that he has reasonable grounds for making
the demand; and
(b) that the use of the menaces is a proper
means of reinforcing the demand.
Validity of Acts
Parliamentary sovereignty precludes the
courts questioning Acts of Parliament
where there is no conflict with EU law
There is no written constitution against
which the courts could test their
constitutionality, as does the Supreme
Court of the United States
Interpretation of statutes
Statutes drafted by Parliamentary
draftsmen, who are lawyers skilled in this
highly important work
Despite the care taken to ensure that
statutes are clear and exact, in due time
legal actions will arise on points of doubt
and the courts will be called upon to
interpret the meaning and to adjudicate
Interpretation of statutes
A statute usually contains an
interpretation section which explains the
meaning of words in that statute
Interpretation of statutes
Section 34 of the Theft Act, 1968,
contains a definition of the words goods
as follows:
For the purpose of this Act goods,
except in so far as the context otherwise
requires, includes money and every
other description of property except land,
and includes things severed from the
land by stealing

Statutory interpretation: reasons
why the meaning may be unclear
A broad term
Ambiguity
A drafting error
New developments
Changes in the use of language
Interpretation of statutes
The Literal Rule
The Mischief Rule
The Golden Rule
The Eiusdem Generis Rule
Expressio unius est exclusio alterius
Noscitur a sociis
The Exclusionary Rule
The literal rule
Words must be given their literal
meaning
Words in old statutes are given the
meaning they had when the statute was
passed
Words appearing more than once must
be given the same meaning throughout
the Act
The mischief rule
Also: the Rule in Heydons case (1584)
Lays down that the court must look at
the Act to see what mischief or defect in
the common law the Act was passed to
prevent
The mischief rule
Four questions:
1. what was the common law before the
Act was passed?
2. What was the mischief and defect for
which the common law did not provide?
3. What remedy had Parliament resolved
to provide?
4. What was the true reason for the
remedy?
The Golden Rule
It is a very useful rule in the construction of a
statute to adhere to the ordinary meaning of the
words used, and to the grammatical
construction unless that is at variance with the
intention of the legislature to be collected from
the statute itself, or leads to any manifest
absurdity or repugnance, in which case the
language may be varied or modified so as to
avoid such inconveniance, but no further
(Becke v. Smith, 1836)
Eiusdem Generis Rule
Where general words follow specific
words, the general words must be
construed as applying to the persons or
things of the same class as those
already mentioned
E.g. dogs, cats and other animals
does not include tigers and lions, for
other animals includes domestic
animals
Expressio unius est exclusio
alterius

the express mention of one thing implies
the exclusion of another
Where specific words are used in a
statute and are not followed by general
words, the statute applies only to those
things mentioned
Noscitur a sociis
The meaning of a word can be
comprehended from its context
Ambiguous or doubtful words may be
determined by reference to those words
appearing in association with them
The Exclusionary Rule
Excludes reference to parliamentary
materials in interpreting an Act
If the Act is ambiguous or obscure, or its
literal meaning leads to an absurdity, the
court may have regard to the Official
Report of Debates (Hansard) for
assistance in interpreting the Act
(Pepper v. Hart, 1993)
Points to remember
Composition of Parliament
Types of Bills
Law-making procedure
Statute book
Word formation
Verb:
Donositi zakone:
legislate
Adjective:
zakonodavni
legislative
Nouns:
zakonodavac
legislator


Legislation
consists of the making of determinations
which are issued to indicated but
unnamed and unspecified persons or
situations
Adjudication
The act of giving a judgement or of
deciding a legal problem
Izricanje presude; sudska odluka;
donoenje odluke
Verb:
adjudicate
Suditi; rijeiti sudskom odlukom

Legislation vs. adjudication
Legislation afffects the rights of
individuals in the abstract and must be
applied in further proceedings before the
legal position of an individual will be
touched by it, whilst adjudication opertes
concretely upon individuals in their
individual capacity
Activity
Look up a recent Act on the Internet. Try
the website: www.opsi.gov.uk
Choose an Act and now search for the
debates in Parliament on that Act (try
www.parliament.uk)
Reading on the Internet
Public Bills currently considered:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/bills_
and_legislation.cfm
Recent legislation:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts.htm
Governments explanatory notes:
http:www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/uk_expa.htm
Exercise I
Find verbs that can be used to make
word combinations with the words below.
There is more than one possibility for
three of the answers:
Amend, codify, consolidate, enact, pass,
repeal, update
Exercise I: Amend, codify, consolidate,
enact, pass, repeal, update

Parliament can:
1. _____ Acts of Parliament
Pass/enact
2. _____new statutes.
Enact/pass
3. ______existing legislation.
Amend/update

Amend, codify, consolidate, enact,
pass, repeal, update

4._______obsolete law
repeal
5. _______statute law, case law, and
amendments into one Act.
codify
6. _____law by repealing and re-
enacting in one statute provisions of a
number of statutes on the same subject.
consolidate
Exercise II
Replace the underlined words with the
correct form of the following:
approve, Bill, debate, drafting, enshrine,
introduce, propose, re-present, submit,
undertake
approve, Bill, debate, drafting, enshrine, introduce,
propose, re-present, submit, undertake

N: How is new legislation enacted?
C: Well, initially the (1) draft legislation
has to be (2) presented to both houses.
The draft is (3) discussed several times.
A committee has the job of checking that
the Bill (4) incorporates the fundamental
elements (5) agreed at the second
reading. After this, the Bill is (6) shown
again to the lower house.
approve, Bill, debate, drafting, enshrine, introduce,
propose, re-present, submit, undertake

N: Who does the (7) formal writing of the
legislation?
C: Its done by qualified barristers
employed as civil servants, known as
Parliamentary Counsel.
N: Who can (9) put forward Bills?
C: The government and, less commonly,
MPs.
Answer
Well, initially the (1) Bill has to be (2)
submitted/introduced/proposed to both
houses. The draft is (3) debated several
times. A committee has the job of
checking that the Bill (4) enshrines the
fundamental elements (5) approved at
the second reading. After this, the Bill is
(6) re-presented to the lower house.
Answer
Who does the (7) drafting of the
legislation?
C: Its undertaken by qualified barristers
employed as civil servants, known as
Parliamentary Counsel.
N: Who can (9)
propose/introduce/submit Bills?
C: The government and, less commonly,
MPs.

Exercise III
Use the following words to complete the
sentences:
Abstentions, budget, consensus,
constitution, devolution, houses, leader,
leak, legislation, policy, membership,
poll, recess, spokesman, veto
: Abstentions, budget, consensus, constitution,
devolution, houses, leader, leak, legislation,
policy, membership, poll, recess, spokesman, veto

1. Germany has a federal ____.
constitution
2. A government _____revealed that
discussions had been concluded on the
treaty.
spokesman

Abstentions, budget, consensus, constitution,
devolution, houses, leader, leak, legislation, policy,
membership, poll, recess, spokesman, veto

3. According to the latest opinion ___the
Prime Minister is more unpopular than
ever.
poll
4. Austrias application for___of the EU
was successful.
membership

Abstentions, budget, consensus, constitution, devolution,
houses, leader, leak, legislation, policy, membership, poll,
recess, spokesman, veto

5. Many Welsh would like to see more
___of power from Westminster.
devolution
6. Parliament has introduced ___to
control the sale of drugs.
legislation
7. The bill was passed by both ___and
sent to the President for signature.
Houses

Abstentions, budget, consensus, constitution, devolution,
houses, leader, leak, legislation, policy, membership, poll,
recess, spokesman, veto

8. The crisis happened during the
summer___and Parliament had to be
recalled.
recess
9. The government is investigating the
latest____of documents relating to the
spy trial.
leak
Abstentions, budget, consensus, constitution, devolution,
houses, leader, leak, legislation, policy, membership, poll,
recess, spokesman, veto

10. The government is running a tight
monetary___to try to control inflation.
policy
11. The___of the opposition criticised
the Prime Minister for his failure to act.
leader
12. The motion was carried by 200 votes
to 150; there were 60_____
abstentions


Abstentions, budget, consensus, constitution, devolution,
houses, leader, leak, legislation, policy, membership, poll,
recess, spokesman, veto

13. The President has the power of ___over
bills passed by Congress.
veto
14. There is a ____between all the major
parties about what we should do now.
consensus
15. The minister has put forward a ____aimed
at slowing down the economy
veto
Additional information
www.parliament.uk
www.lexadin.nl/wlg/legis/nofr/legis.htm