Acts of Parliament in New Ingerland
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted by the successive Parliaments of New Ingerland since 1854. Acts are a form of law known as primary legislation, and stand in contrast to with secondary legislation, which is made by the executive in the form of legislative instruments and some Orders-in-Council.
Procedure
Titles and citation of acts
Acts of Parliament have a number of different titles, which can be used to identify and reference them.
Long title
The long title is the formal name of the Act, and lays out the purpose of the Act in full. The long title can be found on the first page before the first section of the Act in question. Historically, the long title could be extremely long and therefore difficult to remember. However, in recent years, the long title has become considerably shorter, and is today likely or be less than 25 words. The following are examples of the style and usage of long titles in New Ingerland:
- An Act for consolidating' enactments relating to the interpretation of Acts of Parliament, and for further shortening' their language (Interpretation Act of 1897[1])
- An Act to make provision for the procedure to be followed in criminal proceedings in New Ingerland (Criminal Procedure Act of 1971[2])
- An act for holding of elections and other matters (Electoral Act of 1983[3])
Short title
For ease of referencing, all acts also have a short title,(e.g. Broadcasting Act 2013). The short title is always given in §1 of each and every Act passed.
Citation
Since 1972, all Acts of Parliament have been uniformly referenced using chapter/year format (e.g. 4/2012) to define a chapter of the appropriate law in the statute book.
Enacting formula
Each Act of Parliament commences with an introduction known as an enacting formula. Whilst they have no purpose, enacting formula remain as a reminder of the source of all legal authority in New Ingerland, i.e. The Sovereign. The enacting formula used for all Acts of Parliament in this country since 1854 has been:
Be it enacted and declared by the King's [Queen's] Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Assembly of New Ingerland in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows—