An act of Parliament (Act of Parliament)[1] is a statute (commonly called a law) enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament.
In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow sense, as the formal description of a law passed in certain territories, and in a wider (generic) sense for primary legislation passed in any country.
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A draft act of Parliament is known as a bill.
In territories with a Westminster system, most bills that have any possibility of becoming law are introduced into parliament by the government. This will usually happen following the publication of a "white paper", setting out the issues and the way in which the proposed new law is intended to deal with them. A bill may also be introduced into parliament without formal government backing; this is known as a private member's bill.
In territories with a multicameral parliament, most bills may be first introduced in any chamber. However, certain types of legislation are required, either by constitutional convention or by law, to be introduced into a specific chamber. For example, bills imposing a tax, or involving public expenditure, are introduced into the House of Commons in the United Kingdom by convention, and in Canada's House of Commons and Ireland's Dáil as a matter of law. Conversely, bills proposed by the Law Commission and consolidation bills traditionally start in the House of Lords.
Once introduced, a bill must go through a number of stages before it can become law. In theory, this allows the bill's provisions to be debated in detail, and for amendments to the original bill to also be introduced, debated, and agreed to.
In bicameral parliaments, a bill that has been approved by the chamber into which it was introduced then "sends" the bill to the other chamber. Broadly speaking, each chamber must separately agree to the same version of the bill. Finally, the approved bill receives assent; in most territories this is merely a formality, and is often a function exercised by the head of state.
In some countries, such as in Spain and Portugal, the term for a bill differs depending on whether it is initiated by the government (when it is known as a "project"), or by the Parliament (a "proposition", i.e. a private member's bill).
In Australia, the bill passes through the following stages:
In Canada, the bill passes through the following stages:
The debate on each stage is actually debate on a specific motion. For the first reading, there is no debate. For the second reading, the motion is "That this bill be now read a second time and be referred to [name of committee]" and for third reading "That this bill be now read a third time and pass." In the Committee stage, each clause is called and motions for amendments to these clauses, or that the clause stand part of the bill are made. In the Report stage, the debate is on the motions for specific amendments.
Once a bill has passed both Houses in an identical form, it receives final, formal examination by the Governor General who invariably gives it the Royal Assent. Although the Governor General can in theory refuse to assent a bill or reserve the bill for the Queen at this stage, this power has fallen into disuse.
Bills being reviewed by Parliament are assigned numbers: 2 to 200 for government bills, 201 to 1000 for private member's bills, and 1001 up for private bills. They are preceded by C- if they originate in the House of Commons, or S- if they originate in the Senate. For example, Bill C-250 was a private member's bill introduced in the House. Bills C-1 and S-1 are pro forma bills, and are introduced at the beginning of each session in order to assert the right of each Chamber to manage its own affairs. They are introduced and read a first time, and then are dropped from the Order Paper.
See also: List of acts of Parliament of Canada
In New Zealand, the bill passes through the following stages:
A draft piece of legislation is called a bill, when this is passed by parliament it becomes an act and part of statute law. There are two types of bill and act, public and private. Public acts apply to the whole of the UK or a number of its constituent countries - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Private acts are local and personal in their effect, giving special powers to bodies such as local authorities or making exceptions to the law in particular geographic areas.[2]
In the United Kingdom Parliament, each bill passes through the following stages:
In the Scottish Parliament, bills pass through the following stages:
There are special procedures for emergency bills, member's bills (similar to private member's bills in the UK Parliament), committee bills, and private bills.
In Singapore, the bill passes through these certain stages before becoming into an Act of Parliament.
Acts passed by the Parliament of England did not originally have titles, and could only be formally cited by reference to the parliamentary session in which they were passed, with each individual act being identified by a chapter number. Titles were initially only added to each act when initially recorded by the official clerks, as a description; over time, titles came to be included within the text of each bill. Since the mid-nineteenth century, it has also become common practice for acts to have a short title, as a convenient alternative to the sometimes lengthy main titles.
The numerical citation of acts has also changed over time. The original method was based on the regnal year(s) in which the relevant parliament session met. This has been replaced in most territories by simple reference to the calendar year, with the first act passed being chapter 1, and so on.
In the Australian state of Victoria, acts are numbered continuously from 1860, hence (e.g.) Act 9876 of 2006.
ACT OF PARLIAMENT. An act of parliament may be regarded as a declaration of the legislature, enforcing certain rules of conduct, or defining rights and conferring them upon or withholding them from certain persons or classes of persons. The collective body of such declarations constitutes the statutes of the realm or written law of the British nation, in the widest sense, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. It is not, however, till the earlier half of the 13th century that, in a more limited constitutional sense, the statute-book is generally held to open, and the parliamentary records only begin to assume distinct outlines late in the reign of Edward I. It gradually became a fixed constitutional principle that an act of parliament, to be valid, must express concurrently the will of the entire legislature. It was not, however, till the reign of Henry VI that it became customary, as now, to introduce bills into parliament in the form of finished acts; and the enacting clause, regarded by constitutionalists as the first perfect assertion, in words, of popular right,. came into general use as late as the reign of Charles II. It is thus expressed in the case of all acts other than those granting money to the crown: - "Be it 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 present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same." Where the act is a money grant the enacting clause is prefaced by the words, "Most gracious Sovereign, we, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, towards making good the supply 1 which we have cheerfully granted to Your Majesty in this session of Parliament, have resolved to grant unto Your Majesty the sums hereinafter mentioned; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, &c." The use of the preamble with which acts are usually prefaced is thus quaintly set forth by Lord Coke: "The rehearsal or preamble of the statute is a good meane to find out the meaning of the statute,. and, as it were, a key to open the understanding thereof" (Co. Litt. 79a). Originally the collective acts of each session formed but one statute, to which a general title was attached, and for this reason an act of parliament was up to 1892 generally cited as the chapter of a particular statute, e.g. 24 and 25 Vict. c. 101. Titles were, however, prefixed to individual acts as early as 1488. Now, by the Short Titles Act 1892, it is optional to cite most important acts up to that date by their short titles, either individually or collectively. Most modern acts have borne short titles independently of the act of 1892. (See PARLIAMENT; STATUTE.)
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Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament or Act is law enacted by the parliament (see legislation).
An Act of Parliament normally starts as a proposed law known as a Bill. The Bill will then be introduced into the Parliament (House of Commons, House of Representatives, House of Lords or the Senate) for debate and possible approval and enactment.
Bills that contain provisions significantly relating to taxation or public expenditure are introduced into the House of Commons in the UK; in Canada and Ireland, this is the law.
In the United Kingdom, Law Commission bills and consolidation bills start in the House of Lords.
In some countries, such as Spain and Portugal, a Bill has different names depending on whether it comes from the government (e.g. "Project") or from the Parliament (e.g. "Proposition" or Private Member's Bill).
An Act may be introduced to parliament also by means of a private bill.
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