Legal Skills (9th edn) - Chapter 3 - Finding Legislation PDF

3. Finding legislation Legal Skills (9th edn) Emily Finch and Stefan Fafinski p. 51 3. Finding legislation Emily Finch, and Stefan Fafinski https://doi.org/10.1093/he/9780192873088.003.0003 Published in print: 14 July 202...

3. Finding legislation Legal Skills (9th edn) Emily Finch and Stefan Fafinski p. 51 3. Finding legislation Emily Finch, and Stefan Fafinski https://doi.org/10.1093/he/9780192873088.003.0003 Published in print: 14 July 2023 Published online: August 2023 Abstract This chapter explains how to find domestic legislation, that is, statutes, statutory instruments, and European legislation both online and in a law library. The chapter also explains how to determine whether there is any statute law on a particular topic and how to work out whether a piece of legislation is in force. The chapter closes by explaining how to find the official current text of the European Convention on Human Rights. Keywords: statutes, statutory instruments, legislation, EU law, Lexis+ UK, Westlaw Edge UK, Halsbury, Official Journal Introduction The last chapter of this book described the various sources of legislation. This chapter will show you how to locate statutes, statutory instruments, and EU legislation. The methods you will use to search will depend on whether you know the name of the particular piece of legislation in question or whether you are looking for any legislation which covers a certain subject area. The chapter will then close by showing you where to find the European Convention on Human Rights. The ability to find legislation is an important legal skill. Legislation is a primary source of law affecting virtually every area of legal study. Clearly, you will not be able to read, understand, and use legislation p. 52 without being able to find it first. ↵ Page 1 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation Learning outcomes After studying this chapter, you will be able to: Find Acts of Parliament and statutory instruments online Determine whether there is any statute law on a particular topic Work out whether a piece of legislation is in force Source the official current text of the European Convention on Human Rights Locate the official texts of EU treaty articles, regulations, and directives Practical exercise Although this chapter will use examples of various materials to demonstrate the ways in which they can be used, these are no substitute for your own experience and practice. Spend as much time as you can getting familiar with the various online resources that are available to you. Even though you might think that everything you could possibly need to find is online, you should not overlook the usefulness of going to a physical law library and trying to find as many of these example resources as you can. Bear in mind that not all resources will be available in all law libraries. At the very least, you will become familiar with the contents and layout of your library, and you may get to know your librarian, which could save you a lot of searching time in the future: librarians are very skilled at online searches too! 3.1 Finding Domestic Legislation This section will describe the various ways in which statutes and statutory instruments can be located, both online and in a library. By way of example, we will use the Stalking Protection Act 2019, an Act which introduced a new stalking protection order (SPO). Throughout this section we will refer to s 1 of that Act: the provision that sets out the grounds on which an SPO may be sought. Page 2 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation 3.1.1 Online 3.1.1.1 Legislation.gov.uk UK legislation is published on the official legislation.gov.uk website, managed by the National Archives on behalf of the Government. It contains most types of UK legislation, from the Statute of Marlborough 1267 (relating to distress and waste), to the most recent (at the time of writing) The Russia (Sanctions)(EU Exit)(Amendment)(No 16) Regulations 2022. It also carries draft legislation and UK impact assessments for all new legislation since 2008. In addition, it contains a section of ‘Legislation originating from the EU’ which carriesthe EU legislation set out in Schedule 5 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (‘retained direct EU legislation’) along with Corrigenda (correction slips for EU legislation) and EU Directives published before 11pm on 31 December 2020. You can simply browse the legislation on the site, or search by title or keywords. Some revised legislation may also be viewed as a snapshot at a particular point in time. These options are found on the ‘Advanced Search’ page (see Figure 3.1). Figure 3.1 Legislation.gov.uk screenshot Page 3 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation p. 53 ↵ So, if you wanted to find the text of s 1 of the Stalking Protection Act 2019, you could simply enter the name of the Act in the title search box, and browse to s 1 (Figure 3.2). Figure 3.2 Stalking Protection Act 2019, s 1 You will also see that the site provides a graphical timeline of changes. This timeline shows the different points in time where a change occurred. The dates will coincide with the earliest date on which the change that was applied came into force. The first date in the timeline will usually be the earliest date when the provision came into force. In some instances, you will see the first date is 1 February 1991 (or, for Northern Ireland legislation, 1 January 2006). No versions before these dates are available. Page 4 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation However, you should take care when using the legislation.gov.uk website. Legislation carried on the site may not always be fully up to date. For example, the site says it aims to incorporate new amendments into the text of legislation within three months of those amendments coming into force. Therefore, it is always preferable wherever possible to find (or at least double check) legislative provisions using one of the commercially available online legal research platforms which should be available to you, and which also carry a lot of valuable additional information. For instance, you will have direct access to relevant case law and other resources once you have found the relevant legislation. Most institutions will subscribe to most of the main online research platforms that are covered in this book. You will probably be able to access these directly via your library login, but if you have difficulty, the best first point of enquiry will be your library, learning resource centre or IT support. p. 54 3.1.1.2 Westlaw Edge UK Westlaw Edge UK provides a range of browsing and searching facilities which can be used to find both Acts of Parliament and statutory instruments. It also contains a useful search facility to find historic law at a particular point in time (from 1991 for Acts and 1948 for statutory instruments) (see Figure 3.3). Page 5 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation Figure 3.3 Westlaw Edge UK screenshot So, if you use the browse or search facility to find s 1 you should also find some extra useful material (Figure 3.4). Page 6 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation Figure 3.4 Westlaw Edge UK: Stalking Protection Act 2019, s 1 First of all, you will see at the top of the bar to the right of the provision that it has the status of ‘Law In Force’. In addition to the fact that s 1 is in force, you should also see the date on which it came into force, namely 20 January 2020, together with its broad subject area (criminal procedure) and some keywords describing it (application, chief police officers, conditions, stalking protection orders). Westlaw Edge UK also gives access to a great deal of further information about s 1 through the various options in the left- hand menu column. This includes a section on ‘Statutory Annotations’ including the relevant part of the Explanatory Note, notes on its passages through Parliament, sections of the Act where certain terms used in s 1 are defined (s 14), links to statutory guidance issued to the police, notes on key legal concepts associated with it, passages from key debates in Parliament which may assist with purposive construction or in cases of ambiguity. You can also find a table of amendments, details of the actual statutory instrument that brought the provision into force—in this case SU 2020/21 reg 2—with a link to the full Stalking Protection Act 2019 (Commencement) Regulations 2020/26, and its territorial extent, together with a list of other legislation that cites it, and links to any mentions in commentary or available topic overviews. Page 7 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation p. 55 ↵ You will find more about the importance of commencement, extent, and interpretation in chapter 4. 3.1.1.3 Lexis+ UK Lexis+ UK provides access to searchable legislation and statutory instruments online as well as cross- references to Halsbury’s Laws of England (Figure 3.5). It has various online interactive tutorials. Figure 3.5 Lexis+ UK screenshot As with Westlaw Edge UK, Lexis+ UK also offers browse and search facilities, as well as the ability to look for historic versions of legislation. Section 1 of the Act looks like this (Figure 3.6): Page 8 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation Figure 3.6 Lexis+ UK: Stalking Protection Act, s 1 In the notes found by scrolling down to the bottom of the page, it also gives details of the section coming into force and the statutory instrument that brought it into force. In addition, Lexis+ UK also offers links (on the right-hand side of the page) to a number of other useful pieces of information, including the ‘Status Snapshot’ which gives details of the ‘Enactment Overview’ with the date of Royal Assent of the Act as a whole (15 March 2019), the commencement date and statutory instrument which brought s 1 into force (20 January 2020; SI 2020/26), and any subsequent amendments (none at the time of writing). Lexis+ UK also offers (exclusively) links to various parts of the Halsbury series of legal information, which are extremely useful: Halsbury’s Annotations. This may be accessed via the link under ‘Supporting Materials’. Halsbury’s Annotations are derived from the notes that appear in the volumes of Halsbury’s Statutes of England and Wales. These notes provide precise information (where available) relating to: Commencement Parliamentary debates and, where appropriate, the background to legislation Page 9 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation Words and phrases defined statutorily p. 56 Judicial interpretation of statutes, whether of individual words and phrases, or sections as a whole Cross-references to other provisions of the Act and to other relevant legislation Subordinate legislation The origin of consolidating legislation. The annotations are updated weekly to reflect changes brought about by new cases and new legislation. p. 57 Halsbury’s Laws. This provides commentary about the provision. Self-test questions 1. Which pieces of legislation amended s 39 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in 2007? 2. Which section was added to the Terrorism Act 2000 by s 117(2) of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001? Review the answers to the self-test questions (3.1) and watch the following accompanying video explanations from the authors. Video playback is not supported in this format. Video 3.1: Finding legislation Video playback is not supported in this format. Video 3.2: Finding legislation 3.1.2 In a library Although much legal research is now done online, the ability to use a law library is still a very useful legal skill. There are some suggestions for further reading which go into much greater depth than is possible in this book at the end of the chapter. More practically speaking, though, should you ever need to find Page 10 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation legislation in the library (remember that online services can sometimes go offline; or, worse still, you find yourself without internet connection!), then you should first seek out your law librarian who will be able to assist. Legislation is published in a range of print publications: Public General Acts and Measures. At the end of each year, the Public General Acts which have been enacted during the year are published together in the official series Public General Acts and Measures. This series includes an index to all Acts passed during the year in alphabetical order; a chronological index to all Acts passed during the year (by chapter number); the full text of all Public General Acts enacted during the year in chapter number (chronological) order; the full text of all the General Synod Measures of the Church of England passed in the year; and a list (but not the full text) of Local and Personal Acts enacted during the year. Chronological Table of the Statutes. The Chronological Table of the Statutes provides historical as well as current information. As its name suggests it lists all statutes enacted since 1235 (the Statute of Merton). It then shows, for each, whether it has been repealed or amended. The statutes are listed in year and chapter order. Current Law Legislation Citator. Since 1972 the Current Law Legislation Citators have provided an alphabetical list of statutes at the start of each volume. This can be useful if you know the name of the Act but are unsure of its year or chapter number. Current Law Statutes Annotated. Current Law Statutes Annotated provides the full text of all Public General Acts shortly after the official Act is published by the King’s Printer (and will ultimately be bound into Public General Acts and Measures). They are supplied as individual booklets and filed in a loose-leaf service binder in chapter number order. The annotations generally provide a detailed account of the legislative history of the Act including references to the key debates in Hansard, provision by provision. Although these annotations carry no legal authority, they are extremely useful. Halsbury’s Statutes. Halsbury’s Statutes of England aims to provide current versions of all Public General Acts in force in England and Wales. As you would probably imagine, it is a mammoth undertaking which comprises a number of different volumes, all of which work together to keep the publication overall as up to date as possible. The information listed in the main volumes is brought up to date annually via the Cumulative Supplement with more recent (i.e. this year’s) developments being available via the Noter-Up Service. p. 58 Halsbury’s Is it in Force? The quickest way to determine whether a particular statutory provision is in force is to use Is it in Force? which is part of the Halsbury’s Statutes suite. However, it only covers statutes enacted since 1961. For older statutes, you should use the Chronological Table of the Statutes. As you have already seen, the suite of Halsbury publications is available via Lexis+ UK, where it is kept up to date. Page 11 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation 3.2 European Convention on Human Rights The official text of the European Convention on Human Rights and the various protocols which amend it can be found online at the Council of Europe’s official treaty website (see Figure 3.7). Figure 3.7 Council of Europe screenshot Individual copies of the Convention on Human Rights are also published by the Council of Europe. 3.3 Finding EU Legislation 3.3.1 The Official Journal of the European Union The Official Journal of the European Union (generally referred to as the Official Journal or just the OJ) is the only official source of the officially adopted texts of the EU. Page 12 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation p. 59 ↵ The Official Journal is published almost daily (usually around six times a week). It is vast—running to 1 p. 60 over 30,000 pages annually! It comprises several parts, as listed in Table 3.1. ↵ Table 3.1 Parts of the Official Journal Part Contents L series The L series contains all EU legislation including: (Legislation) Regulations Directives Decisions Recommendations Opinions The Directory of Community Legislation in Force is published as part of the L series. This lists references to the initial texts and to any subsequent amendments. It also includes references to agreements made and conventions signed by the European Union in the framework of external relations, binding acts under the EU Treaties, complementary acts, such as those of the Council of Ministers and Heads of State or Government, and other non-binding acts which are relevant for the institutions. C series The C series contains EU information and notices and includes: (Information and Summaries of judgments of the Court of Justice and the General Court Notices) Minutes of Parliamentary meetings Reports of the Court of Auditors Parliamentary written questions and answers from the Council or Commission Statements from the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions Competition notices for recruitment by the EU institutions (if you are interested only in these notices, there is a special subscription—see price list) Calls for expressions of interest for EU programmes and projects Other documents published pursuant to EU legislation Public contracts for food aid The table of contents of the OJ CE series CE series The CE series contains preparatory acts in the legislative process S series The S series publishes details of public contracts which are open to competitive tender (Supplemental) Annex The Annex contains full-text transcripts of debates in the European Parliament Special Edition The Special Edition contains official English translations of all EC legislation in force as at 1 January 1973 when the UK joined the European Communities Page 13 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation 2 3 Note that the S series and the Annex are only available online. The S series can be found in Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) (see Figure 3.8). Figure 3.8 TED screenshot © European Union, 1995–2019 Weekly debates can be found on the European Parliament website (see Figure 3.9). ↵ Page 14 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation Figure 3.9 European Parliament screenshot 3.3.2 Finding treaty articles As you will recall from chapter 2, the underlying source of EU law is found in the various treaties. The EU Treaty itself has been amended by the Single European Act and the Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice, and Lisbon. Page 15 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation 3.3.2.1 Online EU website The text of the Treaties can be found online via the EU website (Figure 3.10). Figure 3.10 Europa screenshot: EU Treaties 3.3.2.2 In a library 4 The authoritative text for all EU legislation is the Official Journal. Page 16 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation p. 62 ↵ An unofficial, but nonetheless very useful, compilation of the unannotated texts of the main treaties can be found in N Foster, Blackstone’s EU Treaties and Legislation, published and updated regularly by OUP. 3.3.3 Finding EU secondary legislation 3.3.3.1 Online EUROPA EUROPA is the main website of the European Union. It comprises over 1.5 million pages and contains freely-searchable EU legislation and case law content. Other platforms Lexis+ UK and Westlaw Edge UK also provide search facilities for EU legislation. 3.3.3.2 In a library The Official Journal Index Despite its helpful-sounding name, the Official Journal Index does not greatly assist in navigating the vast expanse of material that is the Official Journal. For instance, it only indexes the L series (of enacted legislation) and the case lists and summaries (from the Court of Justice and General Court) from the C series. It is published monthly, with a cumulative index only being published annually. This means that you may have to search through a number of monthly copies of the Index. It is, therefore, much easier to search for EU materials via one or more of the online sources available. Self-test questions Having completed this chapter, use your research skills to attempt the following more challenging research questions involving legislation. 1. What is the OJ reference of the Preamble to the Accession Treaty of Austria, Finland, and Sweden to the European Union? 2. Which primary statutory provision concerns the use of poison against grey squirrels and coypus and what secondary legislation was made under it? Page 17 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation 3. What legislation excepted the Brazilian wolf spider from the provisions of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976? 4. Which private Act ensures that the flood arches at each end of Gunthorpe Bridge are at all times kept open and free for the passage of water? 5. What was the wording of s 15A of the Theft Act 1968 as at 20 January 1995? Review the answers to the self-test questions (3.3) and watch the accompanying video explanations from the authors. Video playback is not supported in this format. Video 3.3: Finding legislation Video playback is not supported in this format. Video 3.4: Finding legislation Video playback is not supported in this format. Video 3.5: Finding legislation Video playback is not supported in this format. Video 3.6: Finding legislation Video playback is not supported in this format. Video 3.7: Finding legislation Page 18 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025  3. Finding legislation p. 63 Chapter Summary Domestic statutes The legislation.gov.uk website provides free links to the full text of all Public General Acts from 1988 and Local Acts from 1991 Westlaw Edge UK and Lexis+ UK all provide commercially available legislation search engines which are kept up to date and provide much additional valuable information Halsbury’s Statutes of England provides current volumes of all Public General Acts, arranged by subject matter. It also contains a very useful Is it in Force? service Public General Acts and Measures contains the full text of all statutes The Chronological Table of the Statutes is useful for tracing very old statutes, but is of less use for modern statutes as it is often two or three years out of date The Current Law Legislation Citator lists all statutes and provides information as to where and how that legislation has been used Current Law Statutes Annotated provides the full text of all Public General Acts annotated with a detailed account of the history of the Act (including Parliamentary debate) and other useful notes and cross-references EU law The European Convention on Human Rights and various protocols which amend it can be found on the Council of Europe official website The Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) is the only official source of the officially adopted texts of the EU The OJ is vast and easier to navigate online The CE series, S series, and Annex to the OJ are only available online Compilations of EU legislation are widely available in student statute texts EU legislation can be found online for free via EUROPA Westlaw Edge UK and Lexis+ UK all provide commercially available EU legislation search engines which are generally easier to use than EUROPA Further Reading Although almost all legal research is now done online, the ability to use a law library is still a very useful legal skill. Two books that go into greater depth than has been possible in this chapter are P Clinch, Using a Law Library (2nd edn, Blackstone Press 2001), and PA Thomas and J Knowles, Dane and Thomas: How to Use a Law Library (2nd edn, Sweet & Maxwell 2001). Despite being well over ten years old, the principles of library research remain the same, and these books will assist you in finding your way around the library at your own institution. Page 19 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025 3. Finding legislation Notes 1. The figure of 30,000 pages only refers to the L series and the C series. Adding the material that is only available online clearly expands the mass of information in the Official Journal even more. 2. Since 1997. 3. Since 2000. 4. For instance, the text of the Treaty of Nice was found in the Official Journal C series on 10 March 2001. © Emily Finch and Stefan Fafinski 2023 Find This Title In the OUP print catalogue Page 20 of 20 Printed from Oxford Law Trove. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Subscriber: University of Manchester; date: 15 January 2025