Questions tagged [statutes]
71 questions
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Is it illegal to warm up your car?
According to this article, the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 46.61.600 prohibits people from starting their cars in Washington State if they're unoccupied. However, it's a common practice for people to turn on their cars before entering, so the…
The Editor
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Statutory authority to order business to close their doors
In Maryland, Governor Hogan just ordered with "the full force of law" all restaurants, bars, movie theaters, gyms, etc. to close their doors to the public starting at 5 p.m.
What is his statutory authority to do this? I've read the MEMA code (§ 14),…
John Chase
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Why "it is unlawful for X to do Y" rather than "it is illegal for X to do Y"?
It is said that unlawful means "not permitted by law" and illegal means "forbidden by law".
However, I cannot recall ever seeing the phrase "it is illegal to ..." when reading legal text. Instead, the phrasing used is "it is unlawful to...".
Why…
user541686
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Are any British or English Acts of Parliament still in force in the United States?
In Australia, which has a very close legal history with the United Kingdom (diverging completely only as late as 1986), some Acts (or part thereof) of the UK Parliament (and its antecedents, the British and English Parliaments) remain in force in…
user27025
5
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2 answers
Could the USA abandon common law?
I understand that the USA has a "common law" system and that ambiguous written legislation is turned into unambiguous law by courts, such as has happened in many famous Supreme Court rulings. My understanding is that there is an alternative system…
jjujuma
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What is the purpose of this "Rule of construction" in a bill (H.R. 720)?
I'm reading the text of bill "H.R. 720: Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2017" as it was introduced on Jan 30, 2017 at govtrack.us.
Sec. 2. (b) reads
Rule of construction.--
Nothing in this Act or an amendment made by this Act shall be construed to…
geofflittle
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Can Constitutional Statutes be impliedly repealed?
In Thoburn v Sunderland City Council, Lord Justice Laws defines a constitutional statute as one that either conditions the legal relationship between citizen and state in a general manner, or, one that changes the scope of fundamental…
FD_bfa
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Help with law vocabulary. The use of the word "enact" and definition of consolidating statutes in UK law
This might sound like a stupid question, as it is probably a very easy question. It's just I am new to studying law and want to get the vocabulary right. I am mostly a science and math orientated person and I am not good at English language /…
abdellahabib
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Official dictionary of the U.S. judiciary system?
Someone recently mentioned the "plain meaning" rule in one of my questions about statutory interpretation. Is there an official dictionary - like Merriam-Webster - that judges are supposed to rely on? Or do we assume that any of the leading…
David
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What is (or was) the difference between Louisiana's Civil Code and Revised Statutes?
As an example, Title V, Chapter 1 of the 1869 Civil Code was about the grounds for divorce. (This Chapter appears to be exactly the same in the 1882 Civil Code.)
Section 1190 of the 1870 Revised Statutes was also about the grounds for divorce. (This…
user43
4
votes
2 answers
Have there ever been any thought crimes?
Has there ever been anywhere a law criminalizing certain thoughts? The closest I can find is The Treason Act 1351, which is still in force in Britain today. This criminalizes compassing or imagining the death of the King. The statute goes on,…
Daniel Hill
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How does a prosecutor determine intent?
When prosecutors look at a statute, how do they determine the requirements to prove intent?
For example, look at this statute:
“Whoever knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer without authorization, or exceeds authorized…
London Jennings
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3
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Statutory Interpretation in Civil-Legal Systems?
There are several Statutory Interpretation rules which judges within the United Kingdom must follow when trying criminal cases under the Common Law system. These rules are used to prevent laws from only being interpreted literally, which could cause…
user5623335
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How are statutes cited in a trial?
When an argument in a court case relies on the specifics of a statute, and that case goes to trial, how does that statute typically get presented to the opposing party and the judge? Does the attorney (or self represented party) typically just…
Mr. J
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What are statutory schedules and why are they so named?
For example housing act 1988 has schedule 2. But what is a schedule and what differentiates it from a section or a chapter or an annex?
JosephCorrectEnglishPronouns
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