The Statutes of the Realm

The Statutes of the Realm

Title page of the first volume
Editor	Record Commission
Author	Record Commission
Language	English
Genre	Law book
Published	1810 (First Volume) — 1828 (Eleventh Volume)
Publication place	United Kingdom
Text	The Statutes of the Realm at Wikisource

The Statutes of the Realm is an authoritative collection of acts of the Parliament of England from the earliest times to the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, and acts of the Parliament of Great Britain passed up to the death of Queen Anne in 1714.

For the purpose of citation, Statutes of the Realm may be abbreviated to Stat Realm.^[1]

The collection was published between 1810 and 1825 by the Record Commission as a series of nine volumes, with volume IV split into two separately bound parts, together with volumes containing an alphabetical index and a chronological index.^[1]

The collection contains all acts included in all earlier printed collections, together with a number of acts and translations which had not previously been printed. Also, in contrast with previous collections, the full text of each act is printed regardless of whether it was still in force at the time of publication. However, only the titles of private acts are printed from 1539 onwards. The text of each act is generally taken from the Statute Rolls, or later from its enrollment in Chancery, with missing text supplied from the original acts preserved in the Records of Parliament and other sources.

The first volume is prefaced with a comprehensive introduction explaining how and why The Statutes of the Realm was prepared. It also contains the text of various charters of liberties, from the reign of Henry I to that of Edward I of England.

The collection does not contain any acts passed by the old Parliament of Scotland or the old Parliament of Ireland, nor does it contain the ordinances and acts passed without royal authority in the mid-seventeenth century.

In the United Kingdom, Acts of Parliament remain in force until expressly repealed. Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the late 18th-century, raised questions about the system and structure of the common law and the poor drafting and disorder of the existing statute book.^[2]

The Parliament of the United Kingdom, formed in 1800, following the Acts of Union 1800 devoted much attention to the consolidation of public records.^[3] On 18 February 1800, the Select Committee on the State of Public Records was appointed to inquire into the state of public records in England, Scotland and Ireland.^[4] The Committee reported on 4 July 1800, resolving that it was "highly expedient for the honour of the nation and the benefit of all His Majesty's subjects that a complete and authoritative edition of all the statutes should be published".^[3][5]

Following the publication of the select committee's report, recommendations were made in an address to the crown on 11 July 1800,^[4] leading to the creation of the First Record Commission on 19 July 1800^[3][6] At their first sitting on 19 December 1800, the commissioners resolved "That a complete, and authentic collection of the Statutes of the Realm be prepared; including every Law, as well those repealed or expired as those now in force; with a Chronological List of them, and Tables of their principal Matters",^[3] and appointed barristers Alexander Luders, Thomas Edlyne Tomlins and John France as sub-commissioners to prepare the work.^[6]

On 24 May 1802, the sub-commissioners laid their plans before the Board, specifying the sources of materials, the selection to be made, the arrangement and distribution of the work, and were authorised to proceed.^[6] On 21 May 1806, William Elias Taunton was appointed as sub-commissioner, following the resignation of Alexander Luders.^[6] On 23 May 1806, the search for records by William Illingworth and Sir Thomas Edlyne Tomlins was expanded to universities, cathedrals and other public repositories in England and Ireland, who reported back on 23 March 1807.^[6]

On 23 May 1806, the Second Record Commission was appointed.^[6] The work of the sub-commissioners of the First Record Commission was authorised to continue on 22 July 1806,^[6] and the Commission passed a resolution requesting the production of a report on the best mode of reducing the volume of the statute book.^[3]

On 25 March 1808, the sub-commissioners laid down their first volume, covering statutes made in the reigns of King Henry III, King Edward I, King Edward II and King Edward III and 500 copies were ordered to be printed.^[6] On 25 March 1811, a copy of the first volume was laid before King George IV detailing plans for the creation of subsequent volumes.^[6]

The first edition was in nine folio volumes, edited by John Raithby, the first published in 1810 and the last in 1822, containing the statutes from King Henry III's Provisions of Merton (1235—36) to the last year of the reign of Queen Anne (1713).

The editors much difficultly in determining what ought to be considered as statutes, leading to the definition "all such instruments as have been inserted in any general collection of statutes printed previously to the edition by Hawkins^[a] with the addition only of such matters of a public nature, purporting to be statutes, as were first introduced by him or by subsequent editors, and of such other new matters of the like nature as could be taken from sources of authority not to be controverted — namely, Statute Rolls, Inrollments of Acts, Exemplifications, Transcripts by Writ, and original Acts".^[3] Accordingly, the first volume contains royal enactments and various documents of which the authenticity and the claim to be considered could be challenged.^[3]

On 29 June 1816, the Record Commissioners ordered that a General Index to the Statutes of the Realm, one alphabetical and one chronological, be framed. The tenth volume, containing an alphabetical index to the statutes, was published in 1824, pursuant to an order of the Record Commissioners dated 27 April 1822.^[7] The eleventh volume, containing a chronological index to the statutes, was published in 1828, following John Raithby's death in August that year.^[8]

In 1807, pursuant to a resolution of the Record Commission passed a resolution to prepare a folio edition of the Scottish Statutes to resemble The Statutes of the Realm.^[3] Volumes 2 to 11, containing the statutes from 1224 to 1707 were published between 1814 and 1824, and volume 1, containing the statutes from earlier dates, was published in 1844.^[3] No edition of was published for Ireland.^[3]

In 1828, the first edition of Chitty's Statutes of Practical Utility was published in 2 volumes, edited by Joseph Chitty, which printed all statutes relevant to practicing lawyers with short notes, grouped under subject and arranged alphabetically.^[9] The second edition of the work was published in 4 volumes from 1851–4, edited by William Newland Welsby and Edward Beavan.^[10] The third edition of the work in 4 volumes was published in 1865, after Welsby's death during editing.^[11] The fourth edition of the work was published in 6 volumes in 1880, edited by John Mountney Lely.^[12] The fifth edition of the work was published in 13 volumes from 1894–5, edited by John Mountney Lely.^[13] Supplemental volumes were published annually until 1948.^[3]

The Chronological Table of the Statutes, first published in 1870, was based on The Statutes of the Realm as far as the end of the reign of Queen Anne (13 Ann.)^[14] Thenceforth, Ruffhead's Edition 1786, edited by Serjeant Charles Runnington, also known as the Statutes at Large, was followed until the end of the 25th year of the reign of King George the Third (25 Geo. 3).^[14]

From 1861, enactments which had ceased to be in force or had become necessary were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Acts. In 1868, the Lord Chancellor, Hugh Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns, appointed the Statute Law Committee to superintend the preparation of the revised edition of the statutes. The 18 volume first edition was published between 1870 and 1878, replacing the 118 volumes that included repealed and expired statutes.^[3] A 16 volume second edition was published in 1886, which included a chronological list of acts passed with extent of repeals and a full index for each volume.^[3] In 1888, a single volume revised edition of the Ante-Union Irish Statutes from 1710 to 1800 was published by the Irish Government.^[3]

From 1887, an authoritative edition of the Annual Statutes was published annually, containing an index to the public general acts of the session, tables of the titles of public general acts, public acts of a local character, local acts and private acts, a table of showing the effect of the year's legislation on public general acts and a table of local and private acts arranged in classes.^[3]

Section 19(1)(b) of the Interpretation Act 1978 refers to The Statutes of the Realm.^[15]

• 19. Citation of other Acts.
• (1) Where an Act cites another Act by year, statute, session or chapter, or a section or other portion of another Act by number or letter, the reference shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be read as referring—
  • (a) in the case of Acts included in any revised edition of the statutes printed by authority, to that edition;
  • (b) in the case of Acts not so included but included in the edition prepared under the direction of the Record Commission, to that edition;
  • (c) in any other case, to the Acts printed by the Queen’s Printer, or under the superintendence or authority of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

The differences between The Statutes of the Realm and other editions, including Ruffhead's Edition (The Statutes at Large) were considerable.^[14] The Chronological Table of the Statutes published variances between The Statutes of the Realm and Ruffhead's Edition,^[b] with respect to years, statutes and chapters.^[c]

• The Statutes at Large
• List of acts of the Parliament of England
• List of acts of the Parliament of Great Britain

• John Raithby, ed. The Statutes of the Realm. Complete set at Hathi Trust. This is the best and clearest digital set currently available of the original volumes, as reprinted in 1963 by Dawsons of Pall Mall, London.
• John Raithby, ed. The Statutes of the Realm. Volumes 5 (1628–80), 6 (1685–94) and 7 (1695-1701) from British History Online. This provides the most accurate text for vols 5–7, having been re-keyed manually from the originals, rather than relying on Optical Character Recognition of scanned pages.
• John Raithby, ed. The Statutes of the Realm. Volume 3 and volume 4 part 1 and volume 5 from Google Books.
• John Raithby, ed. The Statutes of the Realm. Volume 4 part 1, Volume 4 part 2, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, Volume 9, Volume 10 and Volume 11 from the Internet Archive.