Statute Law - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: statute lawStatute Law Revision Acts
Statute Law Revision Acts. A number of general Acts were passed from the year 1861 to 1927 inclusive, for the purpose of expressly and specifically repealing Acts or parts of Acts which had been either impliedly repealed by subsequent statutes on the ground that leges posteriores priores contrarias abrogant, or which (see the preambles to the various Acts) 'might be regarded as spent, or had by lapse of time or otherwise become unnecessary' from various causes, or had become obsolete, and also partly with the view of clearing the way for two editions of 'Statutes Revised,' that is, statutes in force only, as distinguished from the 'Statutes at Large,' or statutes just as they are passed. In 1890, as explained in an Introductory Note to vol. 4 of the 2nd edition of the Revised Statutes, a Select Committee of the House of Commons considered the subject of statute law revision, and recommended the omission from the Revised Statutes of 'any preambles' [but see that title] 'to an act, or in...
statute law
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Frauds, Statute of
Frauds, Statute of, 29 Car. 2, c. 3 (A.D. 1676). This famous statute is said to have been famed by Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Keeper Guilford, and Sir Leoline Jenkins, an eminent civilian. Lord Nottingham used to say of it, that 'every line was worth a subsidy,' and it has been said that at all events the explanation of every line has cost a subsidy, no statute having been the subject of so much litigation. The statute, though it does not apply or have any Act corresponding to it in Scotland, was practically copied by the Irish Parliament in 7 Wm. 3, c. 12, applies generally to the British colonies, and, remarks Mr. Chancellor Kent (2 Com. 494, n. (d), 'carries its influence through the whole body of American juris-prudence, and is in many respects the most comprehensive, salutary, and important legislative regulation on record affecting the security of private rights.'The main object of the statute was to take away the facilities for fraud and the temptation to perjury which arose in verb...
Common Law
Common Law [lex communis, Lat.]. 'The phrase 'common law' is used in two very different senses. It is cometimes contrasted with equity; it then denotes the law which, prior to the Judicature Act, was administered in the three ' superior ' Courts of law at Westminster, as distinct from that administered by the Court of Chancery at Lincoln's Inn. At other times it is used in contradistinction to the statute law, and then denotes the unwritten law, whether legal or equitable in its origin, which does not derive its authority from any express declaration of the will of the Legislature. This unwritten law has the same force and effect as the statute law. It depends for its authority upon the recognition given by our Law Courts to principles, customs, and rules of conduct previously existing among the people. This recognition was formerly enshrined in the memory of legal practitioners and suitors in the Courts; it is now recorded in the voluminous series of our law reports which embody the d...
Westminster the First, Statute of
Westminster the First, Statute of (3 Edw. 1, AD 1275). This statute, which deserves the name of a Code rather than an Act, is divided into fifty-one chapters. Without extending the exemption of churchmen from civil jurisdiction, it protects the property of the Church from the violence and spoliation of the king and the nobles, and provides for freedom of popular elections, because sheriffs, coroners, and conservators of the peace were still chosen by the freeholders in the county Court, and attempts had been made to influence the election of knights of the shire, from the time when they were instituted. It contains a declaration to enforce the enactment of Magna Charta against excessive fines, which might operate as perpetual imprisonment; enumerates and corrects the abuses of tenures, particularly as to marriage of wards; regulates the levying of tolls, which were imposed arbitrarily by the barons, and by cities and boroughs; corrects and retrains the power of the king's escheator and...
Retrospective statutes
Retrospective statutes, means 'a statute is to be deemed to be retrospective, which takes away or impairs any vested right acquired under existing laws, or creates a new obligation, or imposes a new duty, or attaches a new disability in respect to transactions or consideration already past, Craies on Statute Law, 7th Edn., p. 387....
Lawful
Lawful. The natural meaning in a statute of the words 'it shall be lawful' is permissive only, but if the words are used to effectuate a legal right, they are compulsory, Julius v. Bishop of Oxford, (1880) 5 App Cas 182; see Craies, or Maxwell or Hardcastle on Statute Law....
Wynton, Statute of
Wynton, Statute of (13 Edw. 1, st. 2, AD 1285). Chapter 6, which prohibits the holding of fairs and markets in churchyards, is still in force. The remaining chapters were repealed as to England by the Criminal Law Act, 1827, and as to Ireland by the Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act, 1872....
Staple, Statute of the
Staple, Statute of the, 27th Edw. 3, st. 2, repealed by the (English) Statute Law Revision Act, 1863. See STATUTE STAPLE...
Westminster the second, Statute of
Westminster the second, Statute of (13 Edw. 1, st. 1, AD 1285); otherwise called the Statute De donis conditionalibus; see TAIL. 2 Reeves, c. 10, p. 163. Certain parts of this Act are repealed by Statute Law Revision Act, 1887....
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