{"id":6637,"date":"2019-02-06T18:50:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T18:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/"},"modified":"2023-04-10T13:31:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T13:31:16","slug":"legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Statutes I"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_63 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/#Legislation\" title=\"Legislation\">Legislation<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/#Pre-Independence_Statutes\" title=\"Pre-Independence Statutes\">Pre-Independence Statutes<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/#European_Communities_Act\" title=\"European Communities Act\">European Communities Act<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/#Title\" title=\"Title\">Title<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/#Preambles\" title=\"Preambles\">Preambles<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/#Anatomy_of_Acts\" title=\"Anatomy of Acts\">Anatomy of Acts<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/legislation\/#Statutory_Instrument_Secondary_Legislation\" title=\"Statutory Instrument \/ Secondary Legislation\">Statutory Instrument \/ Secondary Legislation<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Legislation\"><\/span>Legislation<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Legislation refers to laws made formally.\u00a0 Primary legislation refers to Statutes or Acts made by the Oireachtas. The Oireachtas in the Iegislature in the Republic of Ireland. The Oireachtas comprises the D\u00e1il, Seanad and the President. The President\\&#8217;s role is nominal. He or She is obliged to sign Bills into law, subject only \u00a0to his power to refer the same to the Supreme Court on the grounds of possible unconstitutionality.<\/p>\n<p>Legislation includes so-called secondary legislation. Secondary legislation comprises principally, statutory instruments or rules, made under the authority of primary legislation.\u00a0 Secondary legislation must be compatible with the relevant primary legislation. It must be made under clear power in the primary legislation. The secondary legislation may be \u201cultra vires\u201d, i.e. outside the rule making power in the primary legislation.<\/p>\n<p>The exclusive power of making laws in the State is vested in the Oireachtas.\u00a0 The Oireachtas may create subordinate legislatures. None such have been established.\u00a0 The provision for subordinate legislature was reserved in the Constitution to provide for the possibility for internal devolution. This was intended to provide for devolution of law making powers to a Northern Ireland Assembly or Parliament, in a hypothetical 32 County Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Laws must be compatible with the Constitution.\u00a0 The High Court and the Supreme Court (on appeal or Presidential reference) has the exclusive power to declare laws to be incompatible with the Constitution and thereby void.<\/p>\n<p>See the section on the Oireachtas in relation to the procedures by which Bills become Acts and,\u00a0 accordingly, law.\u00a0 The role of the D\u00e1il is preeminent in relation to so-called \u201cmoney\u201d bills.\u00a0 Money Bills are those which involve a charge on public finance.<\/p>\n<p>The Statutes are divided into private and public Acts.\u00a0 In the 19<sup>th<\/sup> Century, \u00a0private acts were commonly passed to deal with matters of local concerns.\u00a0 Private Acts are now relatively rare and very few have been \u00a0passed by the Oireacht<em>as<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Pre-Independence_Statutes\"><\/span>Pre-Independence Statutes<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The Statutes in force in Ireland, include the Acts of all pre-independence Parliaments still in force, to the extent that they have been validly carried over by the Irish Free State Constitution and in turn, the present 1937 Constitution.\u00a0 Article 50 of 1937 Constitution provides that subject to the Constitution, and to the extent that they are not inconsistent the laws in force in Saorst\u00e1t Eireann (the Irish Free State) before the date of coming into operation of the Constitution shall continue to be in full force and effect until the same, or any of them have been repealed or amended by an enactment of the Oireachtas.<\/p>\n<p>Article 73 of the Irish Free State Constitution \u00a0provided that the Acts of the previous parliaments, including the United Kingdom Parliament and all pre-Union Irish Parliaments, English Statutes and British Statutes which applied on 6<sup>th<\/sup> December 1922 would continued in force to the extent that they had not been repealed and were not inconsistent with that Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>One of the earliest Acts passed by the Free State Oireachtas, was the Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922.\u00a0 This Act defines and adapts various terms and expressions in pre-independence legislation.\u00a0 Reference to particular bodies, offices and officers are to be interpreted to refer to the successor office designated under the Free State Constitution. A number of specific offices are deemed to refer to the equivalent named office of the Irish Free State.<\/p>\n<p>There survives a small number of prerogative acts which predate the Constitution which would appear to have been carried over by the 1922 and 1937 Constitutions. See the section under British Constitutional Law, on the prerogative. The charters of some older institutions older public companies are constituted by Royal Charter made under the prerogative. Charters have been adopted and amended by legislation.\u00a0 Certain private bodies such as hospitals, professional bodies, and institutions have been incorporated by Charter.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"European_Communities_Act\"><\/span>European Communities Act<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Regulations made under the European Communities Act may have equivalent effect to or\u00a0 amend primary legislation.\u00a0 The purpose of the Act is to transpose European Union Directives into domestic law. The Directives are subject to law making procedures at EU level.\u00a0 Regulations made under the Act deal with substantive matters, in much the same way as primary legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Statutory Instruments made under the European Communities Act give effect to the Directives, which have been passed by the institutions of the European Union.\u00a0 Most EU laws are now made under a co-decision procedure, involving the EU Council (comprising a relevant Minister of the Government of each State) and the directly elected European Union Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Regulations made under the European Communities Act do not directly amend primary legislation, as such.\u00a0 However, where they are incompatible with existing legislation, the supremacy \u00a0of European Union Law requires that they be given primary effect.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Title\"><\/span>Title<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Acts of the Oireachtas \u00a0have a long title and a short title. The short title is the common name, for example, the Education Act, 1998.\u00a0 The long title follows and sets out the purpose of the legislation. Older statutes commonly have a preamble.\u00a0 This was intended to set out the purpose of the legislation.\u00a0 A number of recent Acts including the National Asset Management Agency Act have incorporated a preamble to explain the purpose and context of the legislation.<\/p>\n<p>The long title of an Act sets out its scope and objective.\u00a0 Until the middle of the 19th-century it was not part of the statute.\u00a0 Since then, it is a (potentially important) part of the statute. It can be used for the purpose of ascertaining the statutory intention and context. Although a little long title may be of importance in terms of the overall context of the statute, it will not limit the substantive provision.<\/p>\n<p>Older statutes did not have short titles.\u00a0 Short title legislation in the 19th century, \u00a0including the Short Titles Act [1893] assigned shorter titles to older legislation.\u00a0 The Irish Short Titles Act 1962 assigns short title to pre-union Irish Statute and other statutes that applied to Ireland. There have several instances where the courts have examined the short title of an Act, in order to interpret the objectives of the legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Post-Independence Act are referred to by their short title and the year of enactment.\u00a0 Pre-Independence Acts may be referred to by their short title.\u00a0 Alternatively and in the case of older statutes, they are referred to by the Session of the UK Parliament, in which they were passed. Therefore, \u00a021 Vict\u00a0 c.4 refers to the fourth statute enacted in the 21st years of the parliamentary session of the reign of Queen Victoria. This will be<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Preambles\"><\/span>Preambles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Older statute had preambles.\u00a0 They are not part of the body of legislation or descriptive.\u00a0 They may provide background or an explanation of the reason for introducing the legislation and may be used as an aid to interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>Preambles in delegated legislation will set out the statutory authority under which the statutory instrument is made.\u00a0 In some cases, the power may have been transferred, when, for example, a Governmental Departments was re-organised.\u00a0 In this case, the transfer of the power may be recited so that the preamble constitutes a proof of the entitlement of the statutory body, to make the relevant statutory instrument.<\/p>\n<p>The date on which the Statute was signed into law appears at the top, after the title.\u00a0 There \u00a0then follows the words of enactment.\u00a0 In the case of legislation by the Oireachtas, it reads \u201cbe it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Anatomy_of_Acts\"><\/span>Anatomy of Acts<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Acts of the Oireachtas are divided into sections.\u00a0 Larger acts may be divided into parts, chapters and subdivisions. Statutes are divided into sections, subsections, paragraphs and subparagraphs.\u00a0 Sections are generally numeric.\u00a0 Subsections may be numerical or alphabetical.\u00a0 Roman numerals are sometimes used<\/p>\n<p>In complex Acts, schedules may be annexed to the main body of the act.\u00a0 They may deal with detailed matters which cannot be neatly detail with,\u00a0 in the main part of the act. The schedules are part of the Act in the same way as the main body of the Act.\u00a0 The placing of provision in a schedule is a matter of convenience and in no way reduces its statutory effect.<\/p>\n<p>Most statutes provide headings and \/ or marginal notes at the side of the printed, which\u00a0 contain a short description of the subject matter of the relevant section.\u00a0 There may be headings for \u00a0various Parts, chapters and other groups of sections in order to identify the subject matter.\u00a0 They are not part of the legislation and are not to be interpreted or judicially considered in the interpretation of statute.\u00a0 They are for convenience purposes only.<\/p>\n<p>The Interpretation Act 2005 allows the courts to \u00a0make use of matters that accompany or set out in the text.\u00a0 This include marginal notes and headings.\u00a0 Therefore, recourse may be had to marginal notes where the provision is obscure, ambiguous, absurd or fails to reflect plain intention of the lawmaker.\u00a0 They are not however part of the Act and the court is not obliged to resolve any issue by reference to them.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Statutory_Instrument_Secondary_Legislation\"><\/span>Statutory Instrument \/ Secondary Legislation<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Statutory Instruments are described in different terms.\u00a0 Most commonly, they are labelled \u201cregulations\u201d. \u00a0In other cases, they may be bye-laws, rules or orders. The most commonly used expression in delegated legislations such that it shares with its regulation.\u00a0 They are general in nature and may regulate particular subject matters. Secondary legislation under the European Communities Act are designated Regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Instruments which do a single thing, such as the commencement of an Act, will commonly be referred to an order or commencement order. The expression by-laws (or bye-laws) is most commonly used in relation to local rules or rules affecting a particular group of persons.\u00a0 Examples are \u00a0road traffic bylaws and bylaws applicable to a particular regulatory body. Local Authorities have general powers to make bye-laws. They are of local application and are not published as Statutory Instruments. Rules commonly refer to procedural measures, such as Rules of Court.<\/p>\n<p>Statutory instruments since 1947 are cited with reference to the particular number designated to them, e.g., SI 360\/2002. Pre 1947 Statutory rules \/instruments are labelled as Statutory Rules and Orders. They are referred to in the style \u201cS.R.O.5\/1941\u201d<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-6637\" data-postid=\"6637\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-6637 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legislation Legislation refers to laws made formally.\u00a0 Primary legislation refers to Statutes or Acts made by the Oireachtas. The Oireachtas in the Iegislature in the Republic of Ireland. The Oireachtas comprises the D\u00e1il, Seanad and the President. The President\\&#8217;s role is nominal. He or She is obliged to sign Bills into law, subject only \u00a0to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19010,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6637\/revisions\/19010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legalblog.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}