The chief editions of the British statutes are the Statutes of the Realm printed by the king's printers, Ruffhead's and the fine folio edition issued from 18io to 1824 in pursuance of an address from the House of Commons to George III. The safest authority is the Revised Statutes. Chitty's selection of Statutes of Practical Utility is useful. Earlier works on statute law include the readings and commentaries on statutes by great lawyers, such as the second volume of Coke's Institutes, Bacon's Reading on the Statute of Uses, Barrington's Obser vations on the more ancient Statutes from Magna Carta to the 21 Jac. I. c. 27 (5th ed., 1796), and the Introduction to Blackstone's Commen taries. Among the later works are the treatises of Dwarris (2nd ed., 1848) and Maxwell (6th ed., 192o) and Craies (founded on Hard castle) (3rd ed., 1923). On the interpretation of statutes, see Sir C. P. Ilbert, Legislative Methods and Forms (19o1) and Mechanics of Law-Making (1914) ; Sir H. Thring, Practical Legislation (1902). An official Index to Statutory Definitions (1923) is valuable for drafts men. For bibliography of English Statutes see P. H. Winfield, Chief Sources of English History (1925). For Revised Statutes see Law Quarterly Review (1929, p. 168). Statutory rules and orders are officially published by H.M. Stationery Office both singly and in annual volumes.
The statutes of the Scottish parliament before the union differed from the English statutes in two important re spects : they were passed by the estates of the kingdom sitting together and not in separate houses, and from 1367 to 1690 they were discussed only after preliminary consideration by the lords of the articles, a legislative committee. An Act of the Scottish parliament may in certain cases cease to be binding by desuetude. Acts of the imperial parliament which have been passed since the union extend in general to Scotland, unless that country be excluded from their operation by express terms or necessary implication. Scottish Acts are cited thus, 1678, c. 1o. An edition was issued by order of the Treasury,
Scots Statutes Revised (1707 to 1900) in 10 volumes is a useful publication. Obsolete Acts from 1424 to 1707 were repealed by the Statute Law Revision (Scotland) Act 1906.
the lord deputy appears to have held parliaments at his option, and their Acts were the only statutory law which applied to Ireland, except as far as judicial decisions had from motives of policy extended to that country the obliga tion of English statutes. In 1495 the Act of the Irish parliament known as Poynings' Law or the Statute of Drogheda enacted that all statutes lately made in England be deemed good and effectual in Ireland. This was construed to mean that all statutes made in England prior to the 18 Hen. VII. were valid in Ireland, but none of later date were to have any operation unless Ireland were specially named therein or unless adopted by the Irish parliament, as was done, for instance, by Yelverton's Act,
and 2 2 Geo. III.
c. 48 (I.). Another article of Poynings' Law secured an initiative of legislation to the English privy council, the Irish parliament having simply a power of acceptance or rejection of proposed legislation. The power of the parliament of Great Britain to make laws to bind the people of Ireland was declared by 6 Geo. I. c. 5. This Act and the article of Poynings' Law were repealed in 1782, and the short-lived independence of the parliament of Ireland was recognized by 23 Geo. III. c. 28. The application of Acts passed since the union is the same as in the case of Scotland. Irish Acts are cited thus, 26 Geo. III. c. 15 (I.) or (Ir.). The best edition is that issued in 20 volumes pursuant to an order of the earl of Halifax, lord-lieutenant in 1762. A volume of revised statutes was published in 1885. The earliest that is still law is one of 1459. Since the constitutional changes in the Government of Ireland, the Irish Free State passes Acts printed bilingually and cited by year and number. The Northern Ireland legislation in form and citation resembles that of Westminster.
Acts of the imperial parliament do not extend to the Isle of Man, the Channel islands or the colonies, unless they are specially named therein. By the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865 ("the charter of colonial legislative independence") any colonial law repugnant to the provisions of any Act of parliament extending to the colony is void to the extent of such repugnancy, and no colonial law is to be void by repugnancy to the law of England unless it be re pugnant to such an Act of parliament. The 1865 Act is discussed in the Summary of Proceedings of the Imperial Conference of 1926 in its application to the self-governing dominions, for which the imperial parliament does not legislate without their consent. For colonies without representative legislatures the Crown usually legislates, subject to the consent of parliament in particular cases. Examples of imperial legislation for the colonies in general are the Colonial Stock Act 1877, and the Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act 189o. Imperial Acts dealing with particular dominions in clude the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852, the British North America Act 1867, the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, and the South Africa Act 1909: these statutes, like the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922, deal with the competence of the dominion legislature. A colony is defined for the purposes of imperial legislation by the Interpretation Act 1889, s. 18. In certain dominions like Canada, the constitutionality of an Act of the colonial legislature is, as in the United States, a matter for the determination of the local court or of the judicial committee of the privy council on appeal.