Obsolete - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition obsolete

Definition :

Obsolete, invalid by virtue of discontinuance, said of a law or practice which has ceased to be enforced or be in use by reason of change of manners and circumstances, as 'wager or battel' (see BATTEL, WAGER OF), the punishment of the stocks (see STOCKS), the provision of the Gaming Act of Henry VIII. (33 Hen. 8, c. 9) (Revised Statutes, 2nd Edn., vol. i. p. 378, published in 1888; Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Games and Gaming'), by which labourers and others are forbidden to play cards or other specified games 'out of Christmas,' but allowed to play them in Christmas in their masters' houses and in their masters' presence; and that of 1285 in the Stat. Westm. Sec., 13 Edw. 1, c. 34, by which elopement with a nun from her convent, although the nun consent, is punishable by three years' imprisonment and fine. For further instances, see the (English) Statute Law Revision Act, 1908 (8 Edw. 7, c. 49); and see also STATUTE LAW REVISION. But however absurd and, in common language, obsolete an English statute may be, it does not become legally obsolete by mere non-user, though the fact of non-user may be extremely important when the question is whether there has been a repeal by implication. See The India (No. 2), (1864) 33 LJ Adm 193. In Scotland the law is otherwise: see Bell's Law Dict., tit. 'Desuetude,' and so in the Civil Law desuetude works invalidity.

As to the English Common Law, Wager of Battel survived till 1819 and required a statute, or was deemed to require one, for its abolition, and so did pressing to death for want of a plea, and the inquiry whether the prisoner fled for his crime in criminal cases (see the title PEINE FORTE ET DURE, and FLY FOR IT), but the view of Lord Coleridge, C.J., in Reg. v. Ramsay and Foote, (1883) 48 LT 735, to the effect that 'law grows,' would, it is submitted, be judicially taken generally at the present day; otherwise 'eavesdroppers' and 'scolds' (see those titles) would still be liable to indictment.