Statute Law
Modern-day statute law is made by the bicameral National Parliament — more commonly know by its Irish name, the Oireachtas. Acts of the Oireachtas are split into sequentially numbered sections and may be cited by using a short title which gives the act a title roughly based on its subject matter and the year in which it was enacted. While the Oireachtas is bicameral, the upper house, the Senate, has little power which at most allows the Senate to delay rather than veto legislation.
Article 50 of the Constitution of Ireland carried over all laws that had been in force in the Irish Free State prior to its coming into force on 29 December 1937. A similar function had been fulfilled by Article 73 of the Constitution of the Irish Free State, which carried over all legislation that had in force in Southern Ireland. As a result, while the Irish state has been in existence for less than one hundred years, the statute book stretches back in excess of 800 years. By virtue of the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, the oldest Act currently in force in Ireland is the Fairs Act 1204. The statute law of Ireland includes law passed by the following:
- Pre-union Irish statutes
- the King of England as a lawgiver for Ireland, and the Parliament of Ireland (1169-1800)
- English and British statutes, which applied to Ireland in their original enactment or were subsequently applied to Ireland
- the King of England (1066–1241)
- the Parliament of England (1241–1706)
- the Parliament of Great Britain (1707–1800)
- Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which applied to Ireland in their original enactment or were subsequently applied to Ireland (1 January 1801 to 5 December 1922)
- Statutes of independent Ireland
- the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State (6 December 1922 to 28 December 1937)
- the present Oireachtas (from 29 December 1937 to date)
Read more about this topic: Law Of The Republic Of Ireland
Famous quotes containing the words statute and/or law:
“Now a Jew, in the dictionary, is one who is descended from the ancient tribes of Judea, or one who is regarded as descended from that tribe. That’s what it says in the dictionary; but you and I know what a Jew is—One Who Killed Our Lord.... And although there should be a statute of limitations for that crime, it seems that those who neither have the actions nor the gait of Christians, pagan or not, will bust us out, unrelenting dues, for another deuce.”
—Lenny Bruce (1925–1966)
“No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or place or time.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)