Understanding citations – LEGISLATION

STATUTES

1. UK Parliament statutes

Statutes prior to 1963

Each piece of legislation passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom is known as an Act of Parliament. In the citation of the Act, the number(s) before the letters represents the years of the reign of the monarch during which the relevant parliamentary session was held. Parliamentary sessions did not coincide with calendar years, and usually they spanned more than one calendar year.

For example

The citation here means that The Railways (Extension Time) Act is the 18^th Act passed during the session that started in the 31^st year of the reign of Victoria and which finished in the 32^nd year of that reign.

Modern statutes (since 1963)

Each modern Act of Parliament commences with a ‘Short Title’, which is a relatively brief name almost invariably used to identify the Act. The Short Title also includes the year of enactment. This is followed by a chapter number, which denotes the sequential number of the Act in the calendar year.

For example

The citation means that the Human Rights Act was the 42^nd Act of Parliament passed in the year 1998.

2. Scottish Parliament statutes

The Scotland Act 1998 and the Scotland Act 2012 guarantee the power to the Scottish Parliament to create their own legislation in certain fields. Acts of the Scottish Parliament commence with a ‘Short Title’ (usually containing the word ‘Scotland’ in brackets and the year of enactment) followed by the acronym ‘asp’ (which stands for ‘Act of the Scottish Parliament’) and a number  (which increases consecutively from number 1 with each Act in the calendar year).

For example

This citation means that the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act was the 1^st Act of the Scottish Parliament passed in the year 2016.

DELEGATED LEGISLATION

1. UK Statutory Instruments 

The most familiar type of delegated legislation is the Statutory Instrument (SI). Statutory Instruments in the UK are centrally registered and issued with a number which resumes from ‘No. 1’ at the start of each calendar year.

For example

2. Scottish Statutory Instruments

Each Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) made by the Scottish Government is in essentially the same form as the UK Statutory Instruments although cited using the prefix ‘SSI’. They are separately numbered, with the numbering resuming from ‘No. 1’ at the start of each calendar year.

For example

If you have any questions or need assistance, please visit the library or email us.

Taylor Library Team
 lawlib@abdn.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Law subject resources – Public Information Online

© UK Parliament

Every law student knows the law databases very well. We do not need to introduce Westlaw, Lexis Library or HeinOnline to you. But, did you know that there are other useful databases which can help your studies and research? One of them is Public Information Online (PIO).

PIO is a full text database which provides access to Parliamentary publications from the Westminster Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly, National Assembly for Wales and Scottish Government. It also contains Non-Parliamentary material.

You can find all kinds of official publications through the database whether you want to track a Bill, read a debate in Hansard, find a Command Paper or read an overview of an Act. PIO allows you to see any UK Act dating back to 1988 and it’s amending Statutory Instruments.

One of PIO’s best known features is a directory, Civil Service Yearbook for detailed information on the structure, department and key personnel of the Civil Service of all central and devolved governments.

Online access to PIO database is available through Primo. Please login to Primo at the top right corner of the screen first, then on Primo Advanced Search, click on the ‘Find Databases‘ tab, and select letter ‘P‘ for Public Information Online.  If you are working from home, and you were presented with an authentication page, simple login with your university username and password, and start your search.

For more information, please read our Official Publications library guide or visit us in the Taylor Library.

Taylor Library Team
lawlib@abdn.ac.uk

UK primary and secondary legislation

The present post gives you a short summary of the primary and secondary legislation in the United Kingdom in accordance with the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA, 4th edition).  It could be particularly useful for students who are writing their dissertations over the summer and want to cite UK legislation. For more information, please see pp. 23-28 in the OSCOLA user guide.

© UK Parliament

UK primary legislation:

• Acts of the UK Parliament
• Bills
• Acts of the Scottish Parliament
• Scottish Parliament Bills
• Acts of the Welsh Assembly (previously known as Welsh Measures)
• Welsh Assembly Bills
• Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly
  (or previously, Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland)
• Bills of the Northern Ireland Assembly

UK secondary legislation:

• UK Statutory instruments (previously known as Statutory rules, regulations
  or orders)
• Rules of court
• Statutory instruments of the Welsh Assembly
• Statutory instruments of the Scottish Parliament
• Northern Ireland statutory rules.

 

Taylor Library Team
lawlib@abdn.ac.uk

UK Joint Committee on Human Rights publishes ‘Human Rights Judgements’ report

Have some newspapers been misleading the public in the way they use statistics of judgement of the European Court of Human Rights to overestimate the times the Court finds against the UK?

This and other issues are discussed in a report entitled Human Rights Judgments by the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights.

http://www.publicinformationonline.com/download/71237
(available to Aberdeen University users)

More information about this report is at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/joint-select/human-rights-committee/news/human-rights-judgement-report/

 

Other UK and Scottish Government reports are available on the Public Information Online database available through Primo”