As a society, we often discuss complex bills that include legal jargon that can feel hard to follow. To help ease confusion, our members have compiled a legal dictionary that we will continue adding to as new vocabulary comes up in our discussions. A preliminary list is now available below. Please feel free to let us know if you think anything is missing, or if you would like to add to the list.
The terms and definitions contained within have been taken from the Oxford Dictionary of Law.
Legislation: 1. The whole or any part of a country’s written law. In the UK the term is normally confined to Acts of Parliament, but in its broadest sense, it also includes law made under powers conferred by Act of Parliament, law made by virtue of the royal prerogative and Measures. 2. The process of making written law.
Legislature: The body having the primary power to make written law. In the UK it consists of Parliament, i.e. the crown, the House of Commons, and the House of Lords.
Bill: A draft of the proposed Act of Parliament, which must (normally) be passed by both Houses before becoming an Act. Bills are either public or private, and the procedure governing their passing by Parliament depends basically on this distinction.
- Public Bill is one relating to matters of general concern
- Private Bill is one designed to benefit a particular person, local authority, or other body, by whom it is presented.
- Hybrid Bill is a government bill that is purely local or personal in character and affects only one of a number of interests in the same class.
Primary legislation: the term used to describe the main laws passed by the legislative bodies of the UK e.g. Acts of the UK Parliament. *
Secondary legislation: this is delegated legislation made by a person or body under authority contained in primary legislation.Typically, powers to make secondary legislation may be conferred on ministers, on the Crown, or on public bodies. *
Royal assent: The agreement of the Crown, given under the royal prerogative and signified either by the sovereign in person or by royal commissioners, that converts a Bill into an Act of Parliament or gives Measure the force of an Act. It is the duty of the Clerk of Parliaments to endorse the date on which it was given immediately after the long title,
Act of Parliament: (statute) A document that sets out legal rules and has (normally) been passed by both Houses of Parliament in the form of a Bill and agreed to by the Crown (see royal assent)