Lord Brougham's Act
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The Interpretation Act 1850 ( 13 & 14 Vict. c. 21), also known as
Lord Brougham Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, (; 19 September 1778 – 7 May 1868) was a British statesman who became Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and played a prominent role in passing the Reform Act 1832 and Slavery ...
's Act, was an act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...
that simplified the language that was used in statutes. 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.


Background

In the United Kingdom, acts of Parliament remain in force until expressly repealed. Blackstone's ''
Commentaries on the Laws of England The ''Commentaries on the Laws of England'' (commonly, but informally known as ''Blackstone's Commentaries'') are an influential 18th-century treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally published by the Clarend ...
'', published in the late
18th-century The 18th century lasted from 1 January 1701 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCI) to 31 December 1800 (MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the Atlantic Revolutions. Revolutions began to cha ...
, raised questions about the system and structure of the
common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
and the poor drafting and disorder of the existing
statute book The Statute Book is "the surviving body of enacted legislation published by authority" in "a number of publications". In England at the end of 1948, the Statute Book printed by authority consisted of the twenty-four volumes of ''The Statutes: Se ...
. 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. From 1810 to 1825,
The Statutes of the Realm ''The Statutes of the Realm'' is an authoritative collection of acts of the Parliament of England from the earliest times to the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, and acts of the Parliament of Great Britain passed up to the death of Queen A ...
was published, providing for the first time the authoritative collection of acts. 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. Several aspects of the statute law had become necessary to clarify.


Passage

The Acts of Parliament Abbreviation Bill had its
first reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming, ...
in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
on 12 February 1850, presented by
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, (; 19 September 1778 – 7 May 1868) was a British statesman who became Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and played a prominent role in passing the Reform Act 1832 and Slavery A ...
. The bill had its
second reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming ...
in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
on 18 February 1850 and was committed to a Committee of the Whole House, which met and reported on 21 February 1850, without amendments. The bill was considered by the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
on 21 February 1850, with amendments. The amended bill had its
third reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming ...
in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
on 22 February 1850 and passed, without amendments. The bill had its
first reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming, ...
in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
on 13 May 1850. The bill had its
second reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming ...
in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
on 18 May 1850 and was committed to a Committee of the Whole House, which met and reported on 27 May 1850, without amendments. The bill had its
third reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming ...
in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
on 1 June 1850 and passed, with amendments. The amended bill was considered and agreed to by the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
on 3 June 1850. The bill was granted
royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...
on 10 June 1850.


Provisions


Section 1

Most acts of parliament would included a clause providing that "This Act may be amended or repealed in the present session of Parliament". 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 The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
had a rule by which decisions of the whole house could not be reversed in the same session. Section 1 of the act provided that acts of Parliament may be altered, amended or repealed in the same session of parliament.


Section 2

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." Section 2 of the act provided that all acts shall be divided into sections, with each section deemed to be substantive enactment without introductory words.


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, in reference to copies of the statutes by the
Queen's Printer The King's Printer (known as the Queen's Printer during the reign of a female monarch) is typically a bureau of the national, state, or provincial government responsible for producing official documents issued by the King-in-Council, Ministers ...
and the reports of the Commissioners of Public Records.


Section 4

Section 4 of the act provided that: * Words importing the masculine gender be deemed and taken to include females, unless expressly provided * The singular be deemed to include the plural and the plural to include the singular, unless expressly provided. * "Month" to mean "Calendar Month", unless words were added indicating
lunar month In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month. Variations In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Euro ...
* "County" to mean also "County of a Town or of a City", unless otherwise expressed * "Land" to include "Messuages, Tenements and Hereditaments, Houses and Buildings, of any Tenure", unless there are words to exclude houses and buildings or to restrict the meaning to tenements of some particular tenure. * "Oath", "swear" and "affidavit" to include "Affirmation, Declaration, affirming, and declaring, in the Case of Persons by Law allowed to declare or affirm instead of swearing"


Section 5

Under
common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
, once an act was repealed it was treated as if it had never been treated, with the exception of acts past and closed. Section 5 of the act provided that where any act repealing in whole or in part any former act is itself repealed, such a repeal shall not revive the act or provisions repealed, unless expressly provided


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. This was designed to save words in commencement sections.


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.


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 A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two elections. ...
.


Legacy

The act was extended to former colonies, including
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
. 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 The Representation of the People Act 1867 ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102), known as the Reform Act 1867 or the Second Reform Act, is an act of the British Parliament that enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the f ...
( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102). A test case ''Chorlton v. Lings'', encouraged by campaigner Lilly Maxwell, ruled that as the relevant legislation used the ambiguous term "man" instead used "male", women could not vote in British elections. In 1880, the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act 1880 ( 43 & 44 Vict. c. 9) legally adopted
Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the local mean time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being ...
throughout the island of
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
and
Dublin Mean Time Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
throughout
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. The act was repealed by the
Interpretation Act 1889 The Interpretation Act 1889 ( 52 & 53 Vict. c. 63) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated enactments relating to statutory construction and provided definitions to shorten the language used in acts of Parliament. ...
( 52 & 53 Vict. c. 63) and has since been superseded by other
Interpretation Act Interpretation Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Singapore and the United Kingdom relating to interpretation of legislation. The ...
s, including the
Interpretation Act 1978 The Interpretation Act 1978 (c. 30) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act makes provision for the interpretation of acts of Parliament, Measures of the General Synod of the Church of England, Measures of the Church Asse ...
.


See also

*
Interpretation Act Interpretation Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, Singapore and the United Kingdom relating to interpretation of legislation. The ...
*
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 ...


Notes


References

{{Authority control Constitution of the United Kingdom United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1850 Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament