statute

Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial, Wikipedia.

statute

statute, in law, a formal, written enactment by the authorized powers of a state. The term is usually not applied to a written constitution but is restricted to the enactments of a legislature. Statute law is to be distinguished chiefly from common law, which may be defined as the body of legal rules derived from judicial decisions and custom. On most of the European continent all (or nearly all) the law is statutory and each field is subsumed by a code. In England and the United States, however, common law retains great importance, but with the expansion of government regulation there has been an immense growth in the statute law of those countries. In order to guide the courts many important statutes contain (usually in a preamble) a statement of the abuses that the legislation is intended to cure or of the general legislative intent. Statutes are classified in various ways. Public statutes (e.g., those establishing crimes) are universal in application, while private statutes (e.g., one compensating a named person for injury) are limited. Public statutes may be local, i.e., affecting only part of the area over which the legislature has authority, or general. Statutes that explain or clarify previous enactments or rules of common law are sometimes called declaratory statutes.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Statute

(polozhenie), in Soviet law, a normative act that summarizes, codifies, and defines the structure, functions, and competence of a state agency or system of agencies, for example, the Statute on the Supreme Court of the USSR and the General Statute on Ministries of the USSR. Statutes also regulate operational procedures of state agencies and organizations in certain cases—for example, the Statute on the Conduct of Cash Transactions by State, Cooperative, and Public Enterprises, Organizations, and Institutions—as well as all organizational, property, and labor relations pertaining to a specific question, for example, the Statute on Discoveries, Inventions, and Rationalization Proposals.

Statute

(1) A provision or regulation that defines the procedures of an organization and the functions of individual national and international organizations, such as the statute of the International Court of Justice (1945).

(2)Regulations that set the legal provisions of such medieval institutions as craft guilds. Valuable historical sources, guild statutes (or charters) consisted of rules based on common law that regulated the activities of guilds.

(3)Any legal regulation, for example, a statute on orders, which defines the procedures for awarding a given order, as well as the order’s description.

(4)Certain legislative acts of Great Britain’s Parliament, such as the Statute of Westminster of 1931, and of the United States Congress.

statute

a. an enactment of a legislative body expressed in a formal document

b. this document

2. a permanent rule made by a body or institution for the government of its internal affairs

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

References in periodicals archive ?

According to Article 6 of the New DIAC Statute, DIAC consists of a Board of Trustees (the 'BoT'), an Executive Committee (the 'EC'), and an Administrative Body.

Dubai International Arbitration Centre Founding Statute Revised: What has Changed?

'But we will explain to them (the people) why the Rome Statute will not do any harm to anyone who is not a criminal,' he told the media at a special interview in conjunction with the first anniversary of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.

Dr M: Govt to look into compatibility of Rome Statute with local culture

'Encouraging universal adherence to the Rome Statute is key in strengthening our collective efforts to promote accountability for atrocity crimes and the rule of law,' he added.

ICC legislative body hopeful PH will rejoin court 'in the future'

* Massachusetts' statute is included under "Consumer Credit Cost Disclosure"

Credit Card Surcharging for B2B Transactions: Finality at Last?

(20) The alleged abuse was more recent than the prior alleged conduct, but the pre-amendment version of the statute applied because even the more recent allegations occurred before the statute was amended.

Searching for adequate accountability: supervisory priests and the church's child sex abuse crisis

On April 26, 2016, TEI issued a policy statement on statutes of limitation for state and local taxes.

TEI issues policy statement on statutes of limitation for state and local taxes

(5) Simply stated, as a general rule applied to a community association, if a newly enacted (or amended) statute impairs a vested right guaranteed by a declaration, the contracts clause prevents it from being applied to the declaration.

Florida community association law: contracts clause application in an ever-changing legislative landscape

S9558 (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980's Section 309) does not preempt state statutes of repose.

U.S. Supreme Court Echoes ACA amicus arguments in CTS Corporation v. Peter Waldburger, et al

He added that these transactions include founding companies, licenses, company's contract amendment and its statute, general assembly formation, as well as meeting the requirements of all bodies concerned for founding a company, amending its statute, granting it the proper license to practice its activity, and expiration by dissolving and clearing.

Ministry of Commerce issues corporate law statute

Before courts reached the consensus that RICO was governed by the catchall five-year period, courts held that, where the racketeering activity under [section] 1961(1)(a) must be "chargeable under [s]tate law," the state statute of limitations should apply.

Time-bars: RICO-criminal and civil-federal and state

Under its original language, the Massachusetts OUI Statute applied only to operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence "upon any way or in any place to which the public has a right of access." (17) The legislature enacted this original version of the statute to protect those traveling upon highways and it was not intended to criminalize operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated in all places within the Commonwealth.

Criminal law - failed the breathalyzer? Just contest the location of the stop - Commonwealth v. Virgilio, 947 N.E.2d 1112 (Mass. App. Ct. 2011)

However, unlike Florida Statute [section]440.13(5), which provides for an independent medical examination "in any dispute concerning overutilization, medical benefits, compensability, or disability," the EMA (expert medical advisor) statute specifically limits its utilization to three different scenarios.

Workers' comp

Encyclopedia browser ?

Full browser ?

CITE

Site: Follow: Share:

Open / Close