A

BILL

INTITULED

An Act for further promoting the Revision of the A.D. 1927. Statute Law by repealing Enactments which have ceased to be in force or have become unnecessary.

WHEREAS it is expedient that certain enactments

which may be regarded as spent, or have ceased to be in force otherwise than by express specific repeal by Parliament, or have, by lapse of time or otherwise, 5 become unnecessary, should be expressly and specifically repealed:

Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this 10 present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. The enactments described in Parts I and II of Enactments the Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed, subject to in schedule the provisions of this Act and subject to the exceptions repealed. 15 and qualifications in the said schedule mentioned; and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 20 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,

A.D. 1927. 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 5 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and where any enactment not comprised in the said schedule has been repealed, confirmed, revived, 10 or perpetuated by any enactment hereby repealed, such repeal, confirmation, revivor, or perpetuation shall not be affected by the repeal effected by this Act;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 15 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 20 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 25 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 30 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, 35 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 40 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, ex- A.D. 1927. emption, 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 enact5 ment 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.

in local

2. If and so far as any enactment repealed by Application this Act applies or may have been by Order in Council of repealed 10 applied to the court of the county palatine of Lancaster enactments or to any inferior court of civil jurisdiction, such enact- courts. ment shall be construed as if it were contained in a local and personal Act specially relating to such court and shall have effect accordingly.

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3. Enactments or words in respect of matters Omission of exclusively relating to the portion of Ireland within the matters jurisdiction of the Irish Free State or to any part solely thereof may be omitted from any revised edition of the the Irish statutes published by authority.

relating to

Free State.

4. (1) This Act may be cited as the Statute Law Short title Revision Act, 1927.

(2) In its application to Northern Ireland this Act shall, as respects matters within the powers of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, be subject to alteration 25 by that Parliament as if it had been an Act passed before the appointed day within the meaning of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920.

and extent.

The entries in italics in the third column of the Schedule, with this
Note, are intended to be struck out at a later stage of the Bill.

The schedule is intended to comprise (as the preamble to the Bill states) enactments which have ceased to be in force, otherwise 5 than by express specific repeal, and also such parts of titles, preambles, recitals, and enacting words as are 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 10 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 15
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.*—that is, enactments spent or exhausted in operation
by the accomplishment of the purposes for which they were 20
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 opera-
tion of an enactment expressed only in general terms, as 25
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 effects the same 30
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, 35
regard being had to the alteration of political or social
circumstances.

* 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.

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