Finally..

[liadnan]

...after years of waiting, the official UK Statute Law database has gone live. Right back to the Statute of Marlborough of 1267.

Comments

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Oh, lawyer geekery!

*rushes off to find Act of Union and look for loopholes...*

[deililly.livejournal.com]

...Wow.

[liadnan]

If we can just beef up the retrospective case law element of Bailii we'll be in business.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I heard the Scottish nobles were bought off, but the Hollyrood inquiry has been abandoned after a stiff letter from Westminster.

[liadnan]

Ain't Section 2 grand?

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Not quite sure what they were getting at there...

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I think it was drafted by Lady Whiteadder

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I think Mason Boyne had a hand in it too.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

"Cold is God's way of telling us to burn more Catholics"

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

"Catholics are God's way of telling us that hereditary monarchy is not a terribly sensible idea."

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Try telling that to His Most Catholic Majesty

[ex-greythist387.livejournal.com]

Wow! Fantastic.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Nah, I like my head just where it is.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That is very nifty indeed, and in my new know-how role, gives me a perfect opportunity to send an e-mail to my department and impress everyone with how wonderfully up-to-date I am ;-)

[knell.livejournal.com]

... so there isn't a single use of the word 'fuck' in the English statute book?

[liadnan]

No, but there are over three hundred in the database of recent British and Irish caselaw
http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/sino_search_1.cgi?method=all&query=fuck&results=50&submit=Search&rank=on&callback=on

[loveandgarbage.livejournal.com]

I checked some of the old Scottish statutes I am familiar with and sadly the SLD is inaccurate. Amendments made by ACts of the Scottish Parliament in force for a few years have not been incorporated. My view on the database then is a valuable resource but treat with caution.

[liadnan]

Any legal information needs to be treated with caution, particularly having regard to the updating information: as it says on the site, amendments are only up to date to the end of 2001.

[loveandgarbage.livejournal.com]

Any legal information needs to be treated with caution, particularly having regard to the updating information

Indeed.

And while the site does indicate that it is up to date re: amendments only to 2001, at http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/Revised.aspx it does indicate that the site will indicate where there is outstanding legislation still to be given effect, and this does not always seem to be the case - having chased through the tables of outstanding effects too. Further a number of early Scots statutes appear despite having been repealed over a decade ago - and with no note of repeal in the provided information. It's fairly easy to check these - because the statutes are quite short and the relevant amending or repealing legislation is limited (given that legislation reforming Scots property law was not that common until recently).

I saw the trial of the system during a previous working life and it had various problems in relation to the amendment and repeal of legislation meaning that for a substantial piece of law reform the database could not be used. It is a pity that the same problems persist in the live version.

Scott