STATUTE, in English law, is a law made by the "sovereign power" in the State. (See ACT OF PARLIAMENT.) It forms a part of the lex scripta, which by English legal authorities is used solely for statutory law, a sense much narrower than it bore in Roman law. To make a statute the concurrence of the Crown and the three estates of the realm is necessary. Thus a so-called statute of 5 Ric. II. c. 5, directed against the Lollards, was after wards repudiated by the Commons as passed without their assent. The validity of a statute was indeed at times claimed for ordi nances such as that just mentioned, not framed in accordance with constitutional rule, and was actually given to royal proc lamations by 31 Hen. VIII. c. 8 (1539). But this Act was re pealed by I Edw. VI. c. 12, and since that time nothing but a statute has possessed the force of a statute, except perhaps certain subordinate legislation ("Statutory Rules and Orders"), the making of which has been delegated by parliament to departments and other authorities (see also PROVISIONAL ORDER), and except Church Assembly Measures passed under the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act of 1919 and presented for the royal assent after a favourable resolution of both houses of parliament.
The list of English statutes as at present existing begins with the Statute of Merton, 1235. The earliest existing statute roll is 6 Edw. I. (the Statute of Gloucester). After 4 Hen. VII. the statute roll ceased to be made up, and enrolments in chancery (first made in 1485) take its place.
All statutes were originally public, irrespective of their subject matter. The division into public and private dates from the reign of Richard III. At present statutes are of four kinds, public general Acts, public local and personal Acts, private Acts printed by the king's printers and private Acts not so printed. The division into public general and public local and personal rests upon a resolution of both houses of parliament in 1798. In 1815 a resolution was passed in accordance with which private Acts are printed, with the exception of name, estate, naturalization and divorce Acts. The last two are now practically superseded by changes in the law of divorce and nationality. Each Act is strictly but a chapter of the legislation of the session, which is regarded as composing a single Act divided into chapters for con venience, the chapters themselves being also called Acts. The
citation of previous Acts is provided for by the Interpretation Act 1889 (s. 35). Every Act now contains a short title by which it may be cited, e.g., the Housing Act 1925. The Short Titles Act 1896 creates short titles for numerous single Acts and groups of Acts, and it is now usual to cite Acts and groups by their short and collective titles rather than by the year of the reign. At com mon law judicial notice is taken of all public Acts of parliament ; the king's printers' copies of private and local and personal Acts are admitted as evidence without further proof under the Evi dence Act 1845 ; private Acts not printed by the king's printers are proved by an examined copy of the parliament roll.
A public Act binds all subjects of the realm, and need not be pleaded (except where the law from motives of policy specially provides for pleading certain Acts, as in the defences of not guilty by statute, the Statute of Frauds and the Statute of Limitations). A private Act must generally be pleaded, and does not as a rule bind strangers to its provisions. Formerly an Act took effect from the first day of the session in which it was passed. The hardship caused by this technical rule was obviated by statute in 1793, since when an Act takes effect from the day on which it receives the royal assent, where no other date is named. This has been held to mean the beginning of the day, so as to govern all matters occurring on that day. An Act cannot in the strict theory of English law become obsolete by disuse. Nothing short of repeal can limit its operation. The law has, however, been interpreted in many cases with somewhat less rigour. In the case of a prosecution for blasphemy in 1883 (R. v. Ramsay) Lord Coleridge said, "though the principles of law remain unchanged, yet (and it is one of the advantages of the common law) their application is to be changed with the changing circumstances Of the times." This would be applicable as much to the interpre tation of statutes as to other parts of the common law. The title, preamble and marginal notes are strictly no part of a statute, though they may at times aid its interpretation; the same is true of punctuation and brackets.