Statute and Its Classification

Statute
• A statute is the formal expression in writing of the will of the
legislative organ in a state.
• According to article 65 (1) of the constitution,
“There shall be a Parliament for Bangladesh (to be known as
the House of the Nation) in which, subject to the provisions of
this Constitution, shall be vested the legislative powers of the
Republic” .
• Statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy.
• The Constitution of Bangladesh does not use the term
‘statute’ but it uses the term ‘law’.
• According to article 152 of the constitution,
law includes any Act, ordinance, order, rule, regulation, bye-
law, notification, custom or usage, having the force of law.
 Statute
• Statutes generally refer to the laws and regulations of
every sort, every provision of law which permits or
prohibits anything which are either made by the
parliament or the delegated bodies to whom the
power to make laws has been conferred by the
parliament.
 Classification
• A statute may be classified from different angles.
• Classification on the basis of duration:
 Temporary Statute
A statute is temporary when the legislature fixes the
period during which it remains in operation and unless
extended ceases to have operation on the expiry of the
period fixed by the legislature.
 Perpetual Statute
A statute whose operation has not been limited to a
specified period and continues to have operation unless it
is repealed by the legislature is a perpetual legislation.
 Classification
• Classification with reference to object:
 Enabling Statutes:
These statutes are the ones which make it lawful to do something
which would not otherwise be lawful.
 Remedial Statutes:
These statutes confer remedy to individuals or groups of persons
against any oppressive act.
 Declaratory Statutes:
A declaratory statute is passed to remove confusion or bring clarity in
the meaning of the word existing in a statute law.
“A Declaratory Act means to declare the law, or to declare that which
has always been the law, and, there having been doubts which have
arisen, Parliament declares what the law is and enacts that it shall
continue what it then is”
 Classification
 Codifying Statute:
A codifying statute is that which comprehensively or
in totality put all laws together on a subject matter in
one Act. It not only contains the statutory law but
also the customary laws or the judge made laws.
Thus codified law refers to statutes that have been
organized (codified) in a systematic arrangement of
all the laws of a state or country i.e statutory
provisions, rules, regulations, judge made laws,
customary laws etc.
 Classification
 Consolidating Statute
The purpose of consolidating statutes is to present
the whole body of customary law on a subject in
complete form. Consolidating statutes collect all the
legislative provisions on a particular topic and
provides them in a single statute, often with minor
amendments and drafting improvements. The courts
generally presume that a consolidating statute leaves
prior case law intact.
Ex: The Labour Act, 2006
 Classification
 Curative or Validating Statute
It is passed to cure defects in the prior law and to
validate legal proceedings, instruments or acts of
public and private administrative powers which in the
absence of such statute would be void for want of
conformity with existing legal requirements but
which would have been valid if the statute had so
provided at the time of enacting.
Ex: The Dowry Prohibition Act, 2018
 Classification
 Repealing Statute
A statute either expressly or by necessary
implication revokes or terminates another
statute is a repealing statute.
 Amending Statute:
It is a statute which makes addition to or
operates to change the original law so as to
effect an improvement.
 Classification
• Classification with reference to Nature of Operation:
 Prospective Statute:
A statute which operates upon acts and transactions which
have not occurred when the statutes take effect, that is
which regulates the future is a prospective statute.
 Retrospective Statute:
A statute which applies to events that took place earlier, i.e.
even before the law was passed.
“Every ex post facto law must necessarily be
retrospective, but every retrospective law is not an ex
post facto law” (Chase, US Supreme Court Justice)
 Classification
• Classification with reference to method:
 Mandatory Statute:
A mandatory statute is one which compels the
performance of certain things or compels that a certain
thing must be done in a certain manner or form.
Ex: The Muslim Marriages and Divorces (Registration)
Act, 1974
 Directory Statute:
A directory statute merely, directs or permits a thing to
be done without compelling its performance.
 Classification
• Classification with reference to scope:
 General Statute:
A statute is general if it applies unlimitedly to
both areas and individuals, in its effects.
 Special Statute:
A statute is special if it applies only to
particular groups of individuals or to a special
situation.
• The End