Referring to Statute
Av: Andrew Davies
Publicerad 16 mars 2010 09:23
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Hur man ska referera till en paragraf eller ett stycke lagtext är inte alltid självklart i internationella sammanhang. Någon universell regel finns inte, men i veckans krönika reder Andrew Davies ut vad som gäller då det rör sig om brittisk eller amerikansk lagstiftning.
“How shall Irefer to an excerpt of written legislation?’ This is a question which has arisen in some law firms where I teach in Stockholm. First of all, there are some differences as to whether you are referring to a piece of American legislation or a British one.
In the US, the main division of a Statutory Code is intotitleswhich represent broad areas of the law. There are 50 of these in the USA. Titles may then be divided intosubtitlesandparts. Following on we havesubparts,chapters, andsubchaptersdepending on how wide and/or deep the Code is. In any case all these areas will havesections (represented by a § symbol). If thetitleis the head of the Code then thesectionsform the backbone which is further split, in order of size, into:subsections, paragraphs, subparagraphs, clauses, sub clauses, items,andsub items. Throughout the Anglo-Saxon world lawyers often define a particular subdivision of a section according to its largest element. For example in The States, "Section III (y)(5)(E)(iii)" is actually not a section but it is a clause. Therefore, the full title would be ‘clause (iii) of subparagraph (E) of paragraph (5) of subsection (y) of Section (III)’. Moreover, if the section, subsection and paragraph were self-evident then you could often hear a lawyer refer to a particular part of the legislation as “subparagraph (E)(iii)”. This would simply be clause (iii) of subparagraph E.
So the commongeneral pecking order is: Title (Subtitle), Chapter (Subchapter), Part (Subpart), Section (Subsection), Paragraph (Subparagraph) and Clause (Sub clause). The ones most commonly used are: Chapter; part; section, subsection, paragraph, subparagraph and even clause.
In the UK, the body of an Act of Parliament is simply divided intosections. Naturally there aretitles and sometimeschapters. However,sectionsare the main reference point as they are numbered consecutively through the Act. These are further divided intosubsectionswhich in turn are further split intoparagraphs. However, it should be noted thatparagraphsis a term used if you are referring to a contradiction between two small areas of the Act. I have increasingly heard lawyers use ‘item’or ‘point’ instead of the ‘academic’ wordparagraph. So, the abbreviated form “s4(iii)(b)” should be read as, ‘Section (4) Subsection (iii) Paragraph or Item or Point (b)’. Generally, ‘Section (4) Subsection (iii)’ is enough.
In the UK, the word clausesare kept only to contracts. Due to the fact that British Acts are ‘slimmer’ than American ones there is generally no need forsubparagraphs, clausesetc in the American use of these terms.
© Andrew Davies, Communicoach 2010
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