Statute Law Revision Act

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 Such Acts normally repealed legislation which was expired, spent, repealed in general terms, virtually repealed, superseded, obsolete or unnecessary.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largest Statute Law Revision Act in any jurisdiction was the Statute Law Revision Act 2007 enacted in Ireland which repealed 3,225 previous Acts.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The scope of Statute Law Revision Bills is confined to the repeal of obsolete, spent, unnecessary or superseded enactments.[7]

The Bill for the Statute Law Revision Act 1892 contains the following note, which describes the classes of enactments repealed by that Act. Certain other Statute Law Revision Bills contain similar notes as they repealed similar classes of enactments.

The schedule is intended to comprise (as the preamble to the Bill states) enactments which have ceased to be in force, otherwise than by express specific repeal, and also such parts of titles, preambles, recitals, and enacting words as are unnecessary and intended to be omitted in future editions of the Statutes under the authority of the Bill.

I.—For the purposes of the schedule six different classes of enactments are considered as having ceased to be in force, although not expressly and specifically repealed; namely, such enactments as are—
1. Expired.—that is, enactments which, having been originally limited to endure only for a specified period, by a distinct provision, have not been either perpetuated or kept in force by continuance, or which have merely had for their object the continuance of previous temporary enactments for periods now gone by effluxion of time:
2. Spent[lower-alpha 1]—that is, enactments spent or exhausted in operation by the accomplishment of the purposes for which they were passed, either at the moment of their first taking effect, or on the happening of some event, or on the doing of some act authorised or required:
3. Repealed in general terms.—that is, repealed by the operation of an enactment expressed only in general terms, as distinguished from an enactment specifying the Acts on which it is to operate:
4. Virtually repealed.—where an earlier enactment is inconsistent with, or is rendered nugatory by, a later one:
5. Superseded.—where a later enactment affects the same purposes as an earlier one, by repetition of its terms or otherwise:
6. Obsolete.—where the state of things contemplated by the enactment has ceased to exist, or the enactment is of such a nature as to be no longer capable of being put in force, regard being had to the alteration of political or social circumstances.
II.—Where any enactment is comprised in the schedule on any ground not above explained, the ground of repeal sufficiently appears from the expressions used in the third column.
  1. As to the use of the term spent, see 1 Blackst. Comm. 44. (14th ed.), 2nd Report of the late Statute Law Commissioners, p. 7, and Warren v. Windle, 3 East, 205.[8]

Enactments repealed by Statute Law Revision Acts include enactments which had become totally inoperative from having been impliedly repealed.[9]

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.[10]

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)
See also: § Republic of Ireland

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.[11]

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.[12]

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.[13]

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.[14] 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.[15][16] 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.[16] This was much broader than the general saving provisions that had been introduced in 1850 that applied to all repeals.[17]

The enactments described in the schedule to this Act are hereby repealed, subject to the provisions of this Act and subject to the exceptions and qualifications in the said schedule mentioned ; and every part of a title, preamble, or recital specified after the words "in part, namely," in connexion with an Act mentioned in the said schedule may be omitted from any revised edition of the statutes published by authority after the passing of this Act, and there may be added in the said edition such brief statement of the Acts, officers, persons, and things mentioned in the title, preamble, or recital, as may in consequence of such omission appear necessary:

Provided as follows:—
The repeal of any words or expressions of enactment described in the said schedule shall not affect the binding force, operation, or construction of any statute, or of any part of a statute, whether as respects the past or the future;
and where any enactment not comprised in the said schedule has been repealed, confirmed, revived, or perpetuated by any enactment hereby repealed, such repeal, confirmation, revivor, or perpetuation shall not be affected by the repeal effected by this Act;
and the repeal by this Act of any enactment or schedule shall not affect any enactment in which such enactment or schedule has been applied, incorporated, or referred to;
nor shall such repeal of any enactment affect any right to any hereditary revenues of the Crown, or affect any charges thereupon or prevent any such enactment from being put in force for the collection of any such revenues, or otherwise in relation thereto;
and this Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect, or consequences of anything already done or suffered,—or any existing status or capacity,—or any right, title, obligation, or liability, already acquired, accrued, or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof,—or any release or discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim, or demand,—or any indemnity,—or the proof of any past act or thing;
nor shall this Act affect any principle or rule of law or equity, or established jurisdiction, form or course of pleading, practice, or procedure, or the general or public nature of any statute, or any existing usage, franchise, liberty, custom, privilege, restriction, exemption, office, appointment, payment, allowance, emolument, or benefit, or any prospective right, notwithstanding that the same respectively may have been in any manner affirmed, recognised, or derived by, in, or from any enactment hereby repealed;
nor shall this Act revive or restore any jurisdiction, office, duty, drawback, fee, payment, franchise, liberty, custom, liability, right, title, privilege, restriction, exemption, usage, practice, procedure, form of punishment, or other matter or thing not now existing or in force;
and this Act shall not extend to repeal any enactment so far as the same may be in force in any part of His Majesty's dominions out of the United Kingdom, except where otherwise expressed in the said schedule.
— Statute Law Revision Act 1908 (8 Edw 7 c. 49) s. 1

Although the Interpretation Act 1889 greatly expanded the 1850 general saving provision,[18] 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[19] and inaccessible (due to the fact that the repealed provisions would not be included in any revised edition of the statutes).[20] 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.[20]

Although the 1889 Act has now been repealed, its general saving provision has been incorporated into the Interpretation Act 1978.[21]

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
  • The Statute Law Revision Ordinance, 1919[22]

Australia

Federal legislation
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1974 (No 20) ComLaw
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1981 (No 61)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1996 (No 43) ComLaw
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2002 (No 63) ComLaw
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2005 (No 100)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2006 (No 9) ComLaw
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2007 (No 8) ComLaw
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2008 (No 73)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2010 (No 8)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2011 (No 5)

Australian Capital Territory
  • The Statute Law Revision (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992 (No 23)
  • The Statute Law Revision (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 (No 1)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1994 (No 26)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1995 (No 46)
  • The Statute Law Revision (Penalties) Act 1994 (No 81)
  • The Statute Law Revision (Penalties) Act 1998 (No 54)

New South Wales
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1898 (No 28)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1924 (No 34)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1937 (No 35)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1976 (No 63)
  • The Statute Law Revision (Local Government) Act 1995 (No 11)

Northern Territory
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2005 (No 44)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2007 (No 4)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2008 (No 6)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2009 (No 25)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2010 (No 29)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2011 (No 30)

South Australia
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2003 (No 44)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2008 (No 9)

Tasmania
  • The Statute Law Revision (Penalties) Act 1995 (No 35)
  • The Statute Law Revision (Repeals) Act 2000 (No 27)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2003 (No 9)

Victoria
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1891 (No 1236)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1893 (No 1348)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1916 (No 2875)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1929 (No 3816)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1930 (No 3943)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1933 (No 4191)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1934 (No 4264)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1937 (No 4485)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1939 (No 4636)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1940 (No 4726)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1941 (No 4840)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1947 (No 5217)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1948 (No 5331)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1951 (No 5602)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1953 (No 5753)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1955 (No 5896)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1957 (No 6112)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1959 (No 6547)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1960 (No 6716)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1961 (No 6759)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1962 (No 6867)
  • The Statute Law (Further Revision) Act 1962 (No 6961)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1963 (No 7065)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1964 (No 7142)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1965 (No 7332)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1971 (No 8181)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1977 (No 9059)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1980 (No 9427)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1981 (No 9549)
  • The Statute Law Revision (Repeals) Act 1982 (No 9863)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1983 (No 9902)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1984 (No 10087)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 1995 (No 11)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2005 (No 10)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2007 (No 28)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2011 (No 29)

Statute Law Revision Committee Act

  • The Statute Law Revision Committee Act 1916 (No 2876)
  • The Statute Law Revision Committee Act 1948 (No 5285)
  • The Statute Law Revision Committee (Amendment) Act 1953 (No 5737)
  • The Statute Law Revision Committee (Amendment) Act 1955 (No 5855)

Western Australia
  • The Statute Law Revision Act 2006 (No 37)

Barbados
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1893[23]
  • The Statute Law Revision Act (No 2) 1912[24]

Bermuda
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1902 (No 55)[25]
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1907 (No 15)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1953 (No 72)

Canada

Ontario
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1902 (2 Edw 7 c 1)[26]

Ghana
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1963 (Act 215)[27]
  • The Statute Law Revision Decree, 1969 (NLCD 355)[28]
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1971 (Act 368)[29]
  • The Statute Law Revision Decree 1973 (NRCD 184)[30]
  • The Statute Law Revision (No. 2) Decree 1973 (NRCD 228)[31]
  • The Statute Law Revision Law, 1992 (PNDCL 295)
  • The Statute Law Revision Law, 1993 (PNDCL 323)
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1996 (Act 516)[32]
  • The Statute Law Revision Act, 1997 (Act 543)[33]

South Africa
  • The Pre-Union Statute Law Revision Act, 1967 (No 78)
  • The Pre-Union Statute Law Revision Act, 1968 (No 44)
  • The Pre-Union Statute Law Revision Act, 1970 (No 42)
  • The Pre-Union Statute Law Revision Act, 1976 (No 36)
  • The Pre-Union Statute Law Revision Act, 1977 (No 43)
  • The Pre-Union Statute Law Revision Act, 1979 (No 24)

Cape
  • The Cape Statute Law Revision Act, 1934 (No 25)
  • The Cape Statute Law Revision Amendment Act, 1939 (No 32)

Orange Free State
  • The Orange Free State Statute Law Revision Act 1936 (No 33)

See also

References
  • Craies and Hardcastle. "Statute Law Revision Acts". A Treatise on the Construction and Effect of Statute Law. Second Edition. Stevens and Haynes. Bell Yard, Temple Bar, London. 1892. Para 3 at pp 336 to 341. See also pp 65, 72, 173, 226, 333 and 389.
  • William Feilden Craies. "Statute Law Revision Acts". A Treatise on Statute Law. Second Edition. (Hardcastle on Statutory Law, Fifth Edition). Stevens and Haynes. Bell Yard, Temple Bar, London. 1911. Para 3 at pp 318 to 322.
  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. HL Standing Orders (2010) (Public Business), No 51(2)
  5. HC Standing Orders (2011) (Public Business) No 140(1)(b)
  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. ISBN 0-905702-26-3. Page 484.
  8. Statute Law Revision Bill 1892, p 3.
  9. (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.
  10. Ilbert, C. P. (1901). Legislative Methods and Forms. Oxford. Reprinted by the Lawbook Exchange Ltd. p. 57. Via Google Books.
  11. The Statute Law Revision Act (Northern Ireland) 1953, section 3(2)
  12. The Statute Law Revision Act (Northern Ireland) 1954, section 2(2)
  13. (1953–1954) 19–20 Irish Jurist and Irish Jurist Reports 14 and 61
  14. Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission. (May 1998). "Statute Law Revision: Sixteenth Report, Draft Statute Law (Repeals) Bill". (Law Com No 252; Scot Law Com No 166; Cm 3939) app. 2 sch. 1 para. 9.2.
  15. House of Lords. (13 July 1863). "Statute Law Revision. A Bill intituled An Act for promoting the Revision of the Statute Law by repealing certain Enactments which have ceased to be in force or have become unnecessary." (Bill 233) p. 6.
  16. McDermott, Peter M. (1 October 1988). "Statute Law Revision Statutes—Westbury Savings". Statute Law Review. 9 (3): 139–145. doi:10.1093/slr/9.3.139.
  17. Interpretation Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict c. 21) ss. 5-6.
  18. Interpretation Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict c. 63) s. 38.
  19. Winfield v Boothroyd (1886) 54 LT 574
  20. House of Lords and House of Commons. (21 May 1958). "Seventh Report by the Joint Committee of the House of Lords and of the House of Commons appointed to consider all Consolidation Bills (including Bills for consolidating Private Acts), Statute Law Revision Bills and Bills presented under the Consolidation of Enactments (Procedure) Act, 1949, in the Present Session being a report upon the Statute Law Revision Bill (H.L.) together with proceedings of the committee and minutes of evidence". (H.L. 5-VI; 108-I, H.C. 209-I) pp. 2-3.
  21. Interpretation Act 1978 (1978 c. 30) s. 16.
  22. The New Edition of the Statutes of the Presidency of Antigua, New Ed, 1921, p lvii
  23. Laws of Barbados,1893, vol 3, p 770
  24. (1914) 14 Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation 228
  25. 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.
  26. 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.
  27. Acts of Ghana, vol 5, Act 215; Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Handbook, Ghana 1970-71.
  28. "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.
  29. (1971) 3 Review of Ghana Law 251; "Acts in Force in 1972", Ghana Business Guide 1972/73, p 104.
  30. "Commonwealth African Countries" (1973) 7 Annual Survey of African Law 24. See further, Ghana Justice Sector and the Rule of Law, 2007, p 30.
  31. "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.
  32. [1997-1998] 1 The Ghana Law Reports 56, 67 & 71; S Y Bimpong-Buta, The Role of the Supreme Court in the Development of Constitutional Law in Ghana, 2007, pp 379, 558 & 609.
  33. Legislative Watch, 6-year volume, 1997-2002, SLC Law Forum, p 19; [2009] Supreme Court of Ghana Law Reports 230 .
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