Interpretation Act 1850

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Interpretation Act 1850
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (1837).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title An Act for shortening the Language used in Acts of Parliament.
Citation 13 & 14 Vict. c. 21
Introduced by Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (Lords)
Dates
Royal assent 10 June 1850
Commencement 4 February 1851 [a]
Repealed1 January 1890
Other legislation
Repealed by Interpretation Act 1889
Relates to
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Interpretation Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 21), also known as Lord Brougham's Act, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that simplified the language that was used in statutes.

Contents

The act devised the current system of dividing legislation into sections which are automatically substantive enactments, and also made various other provisions for interpreting other statutes. For example, it stated that the masculine includes the feminine (thus enabling "he" to be written instead of "he or she"), unless expressly indicated otherwise. [1]

Background

In the United Kingdom, acts of Parliament remain in force until expressly repealed. Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England , published in the late 18th-century, raised questions about the system and structure of the common law and the poor drafting and disorder of the existing statute book. [2]

In 1806, the Commission on Public Records passed a resolution requesting the production of a report on the best mode of reducing the volume of the statute book. [3] From 1810 to 1825, The Statutes of the Realm was published, providing for the first time the authoritative collection of acts. [3] In 1816, both Houses of Parliament, passed resolutions that an eminent lawyer with 20 clerks be commissioned to make a digest of the statutes, which was declared "very expedient to be done." However, this was never done. [4]

Several aspects of the statute law had become necessary to clarify.

Passage

The Acts of Parliament Abbreviation Bill had its first reading in the House of Lords on 12 February 1850, presented by Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux. [5] The bill had its second reading in the House of Lords on 18 February 1850 and was committed to a Committee of the Whole House, [5] which met and reported on 21 February 1850, without amendments. [5] The bill was considered by the House of Lords on 21 February 1850, with amendments. [5] The amended bill had its third reading in the House of Lords on 22 February 1850 and passed, without amendments. [5]

The bill had its first reading in the House of Commons on 13 May 1850. [6] The bill had its second reading in the House of Commons on 18 May 1850 and was committed to a Committee of the Whole House, [6] which met and reported on 27 May 1850, without amendments. [6] The bill had its third reading in the House of Commons on 1 June 1850 and passed, with amendments. [6]

The amended bill was considered and agreed to by the House of Lords on 3 June 1850. [5]

The bill was granted royal assent on 10 June 1850. [5]

Provisions

Section 1

Be it declared and enacted [...], That every Act to be passed after the Commencement of this Act may be altered, amended, or repealed in the same Session of Parliament, any Law or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding. [ preamble to the Act omitted] [7]

Most acts of parliament had included a clause providing that "This Act may be amended or repealed in the present session of Parliament". [8] This was thought to be necessary because all acts of a session were considered to have retrospectively passed simultaneously on the first day of that session until 1793, and the House of Commons had a rule by which decisions of the whole house could not be reversed in the same session. [9]

Section 2

Be it enacted, That all Acts shall be divided into Sections, if there be more Enactments than One, which Sections shall be deemed to be substantive Enactments, without any introductory Words. [7]

Many acts of parliament, including this act, would prefix each section with a clause such as "And be it further enacted", "provided always" or "Provided always and it be enacted". [8]

Section 3

Section 3 of the act provided that where an act is referred to it shall be sufficient to cite the year of the reign, chapter and section (and in the case of acts from the reign of Henry VII and earlier, also possibly the session or statute), in reference to copies of the statutes by the Queen's Printer and the reports of the Commissioners of Public Records. Previously an Act would be cited as, for example, "an Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, intituled An Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to Savings Banks". The title (today referred to as the long title, in contrast to the short titles that started to be introduced in the 1840s) would often be very long. [7]

Section 4

Section 4 of the act provided that: [10]

Section 5

Be it enacted, That where any Act repealing in whole or in part any former Act is itself repealed, such last Repeal shall not revive the Act or Provisions before repealed, unless Words be added reviving such Act or Provisions. [10]

Under common law, once an act was repealed it was treated as if it had never been passed, with the exception of acts past and closed. [8]

Section 6

Section 6 of the act provided that whenever any act repealed in whole or part any former act by substituting provision(s), such provision(s) remain in force until the substituted provision(s) come into operation by force of the last made act. [10] This was designed to save words in commencement sections. [8]

Section 7

Section 7 of the act provided that every act is a public act to be judicially noticed as such, unless the contrary is expressly provided by the act. [10]

Section 8

Section 8 of the act provided that the act would take effect from and immediately after the commencement of the next session of parliament. [10]

Legacy

The act was extended to former colonies, including New Zealand. [11]

In 1867, an amendment was debated and defeated to address concerns that the act could be used to make "man" apply to women in the Representation of the People Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 102). [12] In the test case Chorlton v. Lings, encouraged by campaigner Lilly Maxwell, barristers Richard Pankhurst and John Coleridge unsuccessfully argued that as the Representation of the People Act 1867 used the ambiguous term "man" instead of "male persons" (as the Representation of the People Act 1832 had done), women could vote in British elections. [13] [14]

In 1880, the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 9) legally adopted Greenwich Mean Time throughout the island of Great Britain and Dublin Mean Time throughout Ireland.

The act was repealed by the Interpretation Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 63) and has since been superseded by other Interpretation Acts, including the Interpretation Act 1978.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Section 8.

References

  1. ↑ Constantin Stefanou, Helen Xanthaki, ed. (2008). Drafting Legislation: A Modern Approach. Routledge. pp. 63–64. ISBN   9781317148272.
  2. ↑ Farmer, Lindsay (2000). "Reconstructing the English Codification Debate: The Criminal Law Commissioners, 1833-45" . Law and History Review. 18 (2): 397–425. doi:10.2307/744300. ISSN   0738-2480.
  3. 1 2 Ilbert, Courtenay (1901). Legislative methods and forms. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 57. Retrieved 9 September 2024.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  4. ↑ Gerald Gardiner, Baron Gardiner (5 June 1967). "Consolidation Bills". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . Vol. 283. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Lords. col. 179.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lords, Great Britain Parliament House of (1850). Journals of the House of Lords. H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 21, 24, 26, 29, 30, 34, 54, 183, 198.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Commons, Great Britain House of (1850). The Journals of the House of Commons (PDF). Vol. 105. pp. 97, 279, 337, 358, 364, 372, 368, 383, 390, 414.
  7. 1 2 3 Great Britain; Rickards, George K. (George Kettilby) (1807). The statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland [1807-1868/69]. London, His Majesty's statute and law printers.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Hutton, Sir Noel (1979). "The British Interpretation Act". Journal of Legislation. 6 (1): 15–23. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  9. ↑ Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice (25th ed.). 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Rickards, George Kettilby, ed. (1807). The statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland [1807–1868/69]. London: His Majesty's statute and law printers. p. 67.
  11. ↑ "Interpretation Act 1850 (13 and 14 Vict., c. 21.)". nzlii.org. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  12. ↑ Brammer, Robert (31 March 2020). "The Women's Movement to Gain the Parliamentary Vote, Part 1 | In Custodia Legis". The Library of Congress. Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  13. ↑ Martin Pugh (2000). The March of the Women: A Revisionist Analysis of the Campaign for Women's Suffrage, 1866-1914. Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN   978-0-19-820775-7.
  14. ↑ "In praise of … Lily Maxwell". The Guardian. 19 March 2013. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 29 October 2024.
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