Statute Law Revision Act Explained

Statute Law Revision Act (with its variations) is a stock short title which has been used in Antigua, Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Ghana, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom, for Acts with the purpose of statute law revision. Such Acts normally repealed legislation which was expired, spent, repealed in general terms, virtually repealed, superseded, obsolete or unnecessary. In the United Kingdom, Statute Law (Repeals) Acts are now passed instead. "Statute Law Revision Acts" may collectively refer to enactments with this short title.

The single largest Statute Law Revision Act in any jurisdiction was the Statute Law Revision Act 2007 enacted in Ireland which repealed 3,225 previous Acts. The Statute Law Revision programme commenced in Ireland in 2003 which has resulted in six Statute Law Revision Acts to date (see below) and the express repeal of a total of around 8,000 Acts is the largest statute law revision programme carried out internationally.[1]

Statute Law Revision Acts are sometimes referred to as expurgation Acts.[2]

United Kingdom

Halsbury's Laws says that Statute Law Revision Acts are law reform Acts.[3]

Under the standing orders of both Houses of Parliament, Statute Law Revision Bills must be referred to the Joint Committee on Consolidation etc. Bills.[4] [5] The Statute Law Committee prepared the Bills for Statute Law Revision Acts up to, and including, the Statute Law Revision Act 1966.[6]

The scope of Statute Law Revision Bills is confined to the repeal of obsolete, spent, unnecessary or superseded enactments.[7]

The Bill for the Statute Law Revision Act 1892 contains the following note, which describes the classes of enactments repealed by that Act. Certain other Statute Law Revision Bills contain similar notes as they repealed similar classes of enactments.

Enactments repealed by Statute Law Revision Acts include enactments which had become totally inoperative from having been impliedly repealed.[8]

The following list includes any Act the short title of which includes the words "statute law revision", without prejudice to suggestions that some of these Acts are not actually Statute Law Revision Acts.

Courtenay Ilbert said that the Repeal of Obsolete Statutes Act 1856 (19 & 20 Vict. c. 64) was the first Statute Law Revision Act.[9]

The Promissory Oaths Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 48), the Civil Procedure Acts Repeal Act 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 59), and the Master and Servant Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 24) were expressed by their preambles to be passed for the purpose of statute law revision.

Scotland

Ireland (before 1922)

Northern Ireland

The Statute Law Revision Acts (Northern Ireland) 1952 and 1953 means the Statute Law Revision Act (Northern Ireland) 1952 and the Statute Law Revision Act (Northern Ireland) 1953.[10]

The Statute Law Revision Acts (Northern Ireland) 1952 to 1954 means the Statute Law Revision Acts (Northern Ireland) 1952 and 1953, and the Statute Law Revision Act (Northern Ireland) 1954.[11]

The Short Titles Act (Northern Ireland) 1951 and the Repeal of Unnecessary Laws Act (Northern Ireland) 1953 also contribute to the revision of the statute book in Northern Ireland.[12]

Isle of Man

The following Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom repealed enactments extending to the Isle of Man:

The Westbury saving

The Westbury saving, named for its proponent Lord Westbury, was an increasingly complex saving provision that was included in all Statute Law Revision Acts from 1861 until 1953, and which reached its final standardised form in the Statute Law Revision (No. 2) Act 1888.[13] The reason for its inclusion was as a precautionary measure, intended to prevent any substantive changes to the law arising out of any repeals and to confine the Acts to the administrative function of clearing dead wood from the statute book.[14] [15] As well as explicitly preventing any repeal from affecting the interpretation of any statute still in force, it also retained any right, benefit, claim, liability, principle of law and court jurisdiction that had previously arisen under a repealed Act. This was much broader than the general saving provisions that had been introduced in 1850 that applied to all repeals.[16]

Although the Interpretation Act 1889 greatly expanded the 1850 general saving provision,[17] the Westbury saving continued to be inserted into Statute Law Revision Acts, as the 1889 act did not provide that any principle of law or court jurisdiction arising under an act would be retained on its repeal. However, the Westbury saving's complexity and wide reach gave it a reputation for making the law uncertain[18] and inaccessible (due to the fact that the repealed provisions would not be included in any revised edition of the statutes).[19] As a result, it was not included in any Act after the Statute Law Revision Act 1953, as any extension beyond the provisions of the 1889 act was considered undesirable.

Although the 1889 Act has now been repealed, its general saving provision has been incorporated into the Interpretation Act 1978.[20]

Republic of Ireland

Pre-2005

Enacted between 2005 and 2016 as part of the Statute Law Revision Programme

The following statutes have been enacted under the Statute Law Revision Programme:

Antigua

Australia

Federal legislation

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Northern Territory

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Statute Law Revision Committee Act

Western Australia

Barbados

Bermuda

Canada

Ontario

Ghana

South Africa

Cape

Orange Free State

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. See http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2008/05/07/taoiseach_announces_major_bill.html
  2. Abbott, Austin. "Legal Reform in England" (1870) 1 Albany Law Journal 509. Courtenay Ilbert applied the term expurgatory Act both to Statute Law Revision Acts and also to Acts which, although they consisted almost entirely of repeals, did not come within the narrow lines laid down for the Statute Law Revision Acts, because they contained substantive enactments. Examples included the Promissory Oaths Act 1871, the Statute Law Revision and Civil Procedure Act 1881, the Statute Law Revision and Civil Procedure Act 1883 and the Summary Jurisdiction Act 1884: Legislative Methods and Forms. Oxford. 1901. Reprinted by the Lawbook Exchange Ltd. 2008. Page 62 from Google Books.
  3. Halsbury's Laws of England. Fourth Edition. Reissue. Butterworths. London. 1995. Volume 44(1). Paragraph 1224 at page 722.
  4. [House of Lords|HL]
  5. [House of Commons of the United Kingdom|HC]
  6. Halsbury's Statutes. Fourth Edition. 2008 Reissue. Volume 41. Page 691.
  7. Michael Bedford (editor). Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1998. 179th Edition. Vacher Dod Publishing Limited. 1998. . Page 484.
  8. (1870) 14 Solicitors' Journal & Reporter 922 (1 October 1870). See also Lely, Chitty's Collection of Statutes of Practical Utility, 4th Ed, 1880, vol 1, title "Act of Parliament", p 5, footnotes (b) and (c); and Westropp v Commrs of Works [1896] 2 Irish Reports 125.
  9. [Courtenay Ilbert|Ilbert, C. P.]
  10. The Statute Law Revision Act (Northern Ireland) 1953, section 3(2)
  11. The Statute Law Revision Act (Northern Ireland) 1954, section 2(2)
  12. https://books.google.com/books?id=Us0tAAAAIAAJ (1953–1954) 19–20 Irish Jurist and Irish Jurist Reports 14 and 61
  13. [Law Commission (England and Wales)|Law Commission]
  14. [House of Lords]
  15. McDermott . Peter M. . 1 October 1988 . Statute Law Revision Statutes—Westbury Savings . Statute Law Review . 9 . 3 . 139–145 . 10.1093/slr/9.3.139 .
  16. [Interpretation Act 1850]
  17. [Interpretation Act 1889]
  18. Winfield v Boothroyd
  19. [House of Lords]
  20. [Interpretation Act 1978]
  21. The New Edition of the Statutes of the Presidency of Antigua, New Ed, 1921, p lvii
  22. Laws of Barbados,1893, vol 3, p 770
  23. (1914) 14 Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation 228
  24. Chronological Table of Bermuda Acts from 1690 to 1923, p 110; (1905) 5 Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation 431; Bedwell (ed), The Legislation of the Empire, 1909, vol 1, p 394.
  25. Statutes of the Province of Ontario . . ., 1902, p 1; Edward Douglas Armour, Essays on the Devolution of Land, Canada Law Book Company, 1903, p 341; (1902) 2 The Canadian Law Review 127 (No 3, December 1902); The Revised Statutes of Ontario 1897, Toronto, 1902, vol 3, pp 3899 & 3903; The Canadian Abridgment, 2nd Ed, 1966, XI.I.d., title "Real Property", p [4264-4267], p 892; Sullivan v McGillis and Others [1949] SCR 201, [1949] 2 DLR 305, [1949] CarswellOnt 112, (1949) 93 Canadian Criminal Cases Annotated 175 at 178, CanLII.
  26. Acts of Ghana, vol 5, Act 215; Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Handbook, Ghana 1970-71.
  27. "Law Reform in Ghana in the 1970s" (1970) 7 University of Ghana Law Journal 14; (1969) 1 The Review of Ghana Law 168; Third Report of the Ghana Law Reform Commission, December 1973, p 14.
  28. (1971) 3 Review of Ghana Law 251; "Acts in Force in 1972", Ghana Business Guide 1972/73, p 104.
  29. "Commonwealth African Countries" (1973) 7 Annual Survey of African Law 24. See further, Ghana Justice Sector and the Rule of Law, 2007, p 30.
  30. "Repeal of Cap 131" (1974) 6 Review of Ghana Law 84; E S Aidoo, Conveyancing and Drafting: Law and Practice in Ghana, 1994, pp xxxvi & 28.
  31. 1997-1998
  32. Legislative Watch, 6-year volume, 1997-2002, SLC Law Forum, p 19; [2009] Supreme Court of Ghana Law Reports 230 https://books.google.com/books?id=CP5QAQAAMAAJ.

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