The short title is one of the parts, together with the long title, and the operative provisions (sections and Schedules), which comprise an Act of Parliament or Bill in the United Kingdom and certain other Commonwealth Realms. An Act or Bill is usually identified by its short title, which is often contained within a specific section towards the end of the Act or Bill and which provides a short summary of the scope of the Act or Bill, and usually ends with words "Act" and the year when the Act was passed. The long title (properly, the title) is one of the parts, together with the short title, and the operative provisions (sections and Schedules), which comprise an Act of Parliament or Bill in the United Kingdom and certain other Commonwealth Realms. ... In Westminster System parliaments, an Act of Parliament is a part of the law passed by the Parliament. ... waybill A character in Quentin Tarantinos Kill Bill saga. ... A Commonwealth Realm is any one of the 16 sovereign states that recognize Queen Elizabeth II as their Queen and head of state. ...

The short title may be contrasted with the long title (properly, the "title"), which sets out the full ambit of the Act cursively. For example, the short title of the House of Lords Act 1999 is House of Lords Act 1999, but its long title is An Act to restrict membership of the House of Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage; to make related provision about disqualifications for voting at elections to, and for membership of, the House of Commons; and for connected purposes. The House of Lords Act 1999, an Act of Parliament passed by the British Parliament, was a major constitutional enactment as it completely reformed one of the chambers of Parliament, the House of Lords. ...

Like other descriptive components of an act (such as the preamble, section headings, side notes, and long title), the short title seldom affects the operative provisions of an Act, and rarely contains a sufficiently clear statement of Parliament's intention to resolve issues where operative provisions are unclear or ambiguous. The preamble (Med. ... The debating chamber or hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels. ...

Many early Acts were enacted without a short title, and the long title was used to identity that Act, although short titles were given to many of the extant Acts at later dates. For example, the Bill of Rights was given that short title (without a year) by the Short Titles Act 1896; previously, it was known by its long title, An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown. The long title for older Acts is sometimes termed its rubric because it was sometimes printed in red. A bill of rights is a statement of certain rights that citizens and/or residents of a free and democratic society have (or ought to have) under the laws of that society. ... A rubric is a letter or section of text highlighted in red ink. ...

An example of a lengthy short title is the "Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act (1868) Amendment Act (1879) Amendment Act 1880". Some Acts have more than one short title: the Small Debts Act 1846 (9&10 Vict. c.95 (1846)) is also known as the County Courts Act 1846.

References

• Halsbury's Laws, Statutes, para. 1253, 1268

A statute is a formal, written law of a country or state, written and enacted by its legislative authority, perhaps to then be ratified by the highest executive in the government, and finally published. ...

External links

• Bills and Acts – A Bill’s Parliamentary Stages