Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793

The Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793^[1]
Status: Amended
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act to prevent Acts of Parliament from taking effect from a Time prior to the passing thereof.
Citation	33 Geo. 3 c. 13
Territorial extent	England and Wales, Scotland
Revised text of statute as amended

The Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793 (33 Geo. 3 c. 13) was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain which provided that Acts of Parliament would come into force on the date on which they received royal assent, unless they specified some other date, instead of the first day of the session in which they were passed.

Commencement of Acts of Parliament prior to this Act

Previously, Acts of Parliament came into force on the first day of the session in which they were passed, because of the legal fiction that a session lasted one day.^[2] This meant that all Acts came into force retroactively, and that an Act could come into force on a date a year before it was actually passed. The preamble to this Act said that this was liable to produce "great and manifest injustice".

Provisions of this Act

This Act provides that it applies to Acts of Parliament passed after 8 April 1793.

Endorsement of Acts with the date of royal assent

This Act imposes a duty on the Clerk of the Parliaments to endorse any Act which passes with the date ("the day, month and year") on which that Act passed and received royal assent. It provides that the date must be written, in English, immediately after the title of that Act, and that that endorsement is part of the endorsed Act.

Commencement of Acts

This Act originally provided that the endorsed Act was to come into force on the date specified by the endorsement, where no other commencement was specified by the endorsed Act. The relevant words were repealed,^[3] on 1 January 1979^[4] and have been replaced by section 4 of the Interpretation Act 1978.

Dating of Acts

Because of the fiction that an Act had come into force on the first day of the session, it was also the convention in citing a pre-1793 Act to date it to the year in which the session had commenced. In the context of modern historical writing, however, it is more usual to date Acts (especially well-known and historically significant Acts) to the actual year in which they passed through Parliament. This leads to discrepancies in the way in which the same Act may be cited or referred to: for example, the Act of Uniformity (1 Eliz 1 c 2) is often dated to 1558 in legal contexts, but to 1559 in historical contexts; the Toleration Act (1 Will & Mary c 18) to 1688 in legal contexts, but 1689 in historical contexts; the Bill of Rights (1 Will & Mary sess 2 c 2) to 1688 in legal contexts, but 1689 in historical contexts; and the Union with Scotland Act (6 Anne c 11) to 1706 in legal contexts, but 1707 in historical contexts.

References

Halsbury's Statutes. Fourth Edition. 2008 Reissue. Volume 41. Page 701.

↑ This short title was conferred by section 1 of, and the first schedule to, the Short Titles Act 1896 (see e.g. The Public General Acts 1896, HMSO, 1896)
↑ Partridge v. Strange and Croker (1553) 1 Plowd. 77
↑ The Interpretation Act 1978, section 25(1) and Schedule 3
↑ The Interpretation Act 1978, section 26

External links

The Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793, as amended, from the National Archives.
Royal Assent Procedure

United Kingdom legislation

Pre-Parliamentary legislation	List of English statutes Charter of Liberties Magna Carta

Acts of Parliament by states preceding the Kingdom of Great Britain	Acts of the Parliament of England to 1483 1485–1601 1603–1641 Interregnum (1642–1660) 1660–1699 1700–1706 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland

Acts of Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain	1707–1719 1720–1739 1740–1759 1760–1779 1780–1800

Acts of the Parliament of Ireland	to 1700 1701–1800

Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	1801–1819 1820–1839 1840–1859 1860–1879 1880–1899 1900–1919 1920–1939 1940–1959 1960–1979 1980–1999 2000 to date Halsbury's Statutes Legislation.gov.uk Short titles

Church of England measures	List Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919

Legislation of devolved institutions	Acts of the Scottish Parliament List Acts and Measures of the National Assembly for Wales List Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly List Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland List Orders in Council for Northern Ireland List

Orders-in-Council	Order in Council

Secondary legislation	United Kingdom Statutory Instruments Scottish Statutory Instruments Acts of Sederunt Acts of Adjournal

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