Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 31 October 1947.
Mr James Ede
, South Shields
12:00,
31 October 1947
The volume contains, of course, two sets of regulations—those continued by the Emergency Laws (Transitional Provisions) Act, 1946, and those preserved by the Supplies and Services (Transitional Powers) Acts. We shall be discussing next Friday those coming under the Emergency Laws (Transitional Provisions) Bill. I do not think that for the purposes of next week's Debate, the others will be very much in the picture. As soon as the House reaches a decision on the Emergency Laws (Transitional Provisions) Bill, a new volume will be prepared—I am assuming that the Bill next Friday becomes an Act—which will contain those regulations which have been continued, and all the regulations under the Supplies and Services Acts in the form in which they will be extant at the time of the publication of the volume. I hope that in that way hon. Members and the public generally will have available to them a complete statement of these regulations. I hope also to profit by the experience of the last few days, and to make certain that in future there shall be available, not merely for the House but for the general public, a reasonable supply of these important volumes for the benefit of those who have reason to take an interest in them.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.