Knowledge

Reference and support materials for case law research and legal education.

Looking for legislation?

Legislation

Selecting Legislation from the main menu brings up the Legislation search page: The legislation search form allows you to search for any current UK statutes, statutory instruments and retained EU legislation published by The National Archives on legislation.gov.uk, the official online source of UK legislation. The search retrieves the latest updated version from The National Continue reading

Nowhere to hide: the value of vellum

Legislation

In February 2016 the government, casting about for another sacrificial calf in the constant quest for cuts, announced that it proposed to save some £80,000 a year by abandoning the centuries-old practice of preserving statutes of the realm on vellum. Though now done by printing, the practice goes back to the days when the laws Continue reading

Where is legislation published?

Legislation

As legislation is covered by an open government licence, anyone can republish it, and there are many sources of legislation with annotations and commentary available. This article is purely concerned with the official sources of legislation for the United Kingdom as published by or on behalf of the government. Parliament New legislation is first officially Continue reading

How is legislation made?

Legislation

How primary legislation is made Acts of Parliament begin life as a ‘bill’ which can either be proposed by the government (usually by the minister in charge of a particular department) or by an individual Member of Parliament (MP) or member of the House of Lords. A bill has to pass through a number of Continue reading

What is legislation?

Legislation

In a democracy, Parliament is sovereign and the laws it passes, known as Acts of Parliament or statutes, take precedence over any other source of law. Statutes can be amended or repealed by later legislation, so it is important not only to be able to find the legislation that applies to a particular situation, but Continue reading