Legislation

Legislation, Statutes, Acts, and Acts of Parliament are interchangeable words used to describe the laws made or enacted by the legislature (the Parliament). Legislation and case law combine to create the primary sources of the law.

Key Terms:

• Statutes. A law or body of laws formally made or enacted. The term is often confined to those laws promulgated by a legislature (known as statute law or Acts of Parliament). In its broadest sense, statutes also encompass law made by other bodies under the authority of Parliament (delegated legislation)
• Acts. Statutes made by Parliament
• Delegated or subordinate legislation. Statutes made by a person or body other than Parliament under authority granted to that entity by an Act of Parliament
• Extrinsic Materials. Material that does not form part of a piece of legislation but that may assist in the interpretation of that Act.
  Examples: explanatory memoranda, reports of law reform commissions and parliamentary committees, second reading speeches 

For more detailed meanings of terms used in relation to legislation, see:

For more about case law, see:

Just reading a section in an Act does not provide a full understanding of the law.

To fully understand a statute, you need:

• An explanation of the law (sourced from Explanatory Memoranda accompanying a Bill)
• To learn the purpose and intention of the law (sourced from the Second Reading Speech to Parliament and Bills Digest)
• To identify any points of contention with the law (sourced from the Second Reading Speech to Parliament, Parliamentary discussion and debate, and Parliamentary Committee reports)
• To know what legal experts say about the law (sourced from legal commentary and journal articles)
• To know how the law is interpreted and applied (sourced from case law)

You will need to research current law, as well as law as it read at a specific point in time - law is regularly updated to accommodate community and technology changes. You will also need to know the wording of an Act at the time your client's incident occurred, You will need to be able to source not only an Act, but also any delegated or subsidiary legislation, such as regulations, that are relevant to your client's case.

The following formula may be a helpful shorthand for remembering what you need to understand an Act:

Bill + EM + 2RS + Reports = Act

(Bill + Explanatory Memorandum + Second Reading Speech + reports = understanding of an Act)

For more information about how to find legislation, see the "Finding legislation" section of this guide: