A Favourite piece of law: A Moveable feast.

The absence of any work and a failure to obtain any worthwhile volunteering has had some odd consequences for me.  A recent discussion (conducted by Zoom of course) included a question ‘What is your favourite piece of current legislation?  Well as a parlour game this lacks the physicality of charades (thank goodness – the thought of it makes me hope for some new social distancing regulations just for Christmas) or the mental stimulation of a good quiz.  However I suspect that all ex-police officers, and probably a few legal professionals as well, have legislative favourites.

I have always had a soft spot for the Offences Against the Person and Malicious Damage Acts 1861.  Have a look at the sections relating to railway offences and you will share my admiration for the legislators of Victorian Britain. An extract from the MD Act gives a flavour of the thoroughness of the drafting:

“Whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously cut, place, cast, or throw upon or across any railway any wood, stone, or other matter or thing, or shall unlawfully and maliciously take up, remove, or displace any rail, sleeper, or other matter or thing belonging to any railway, or shall unlawfully and maliciously turn, move, or divert any points or other machinery belonging to any railway, or shall unlawfully and maliciously make or show, hide or remove, any signal or light upon or near to any railway, or shall unlawfully and maliciously do or cause to be done any other matter or thing, with intent, in any of the cases aforesaid, to obstruct, upset, overthrow, injure, or destroy any engine, tender, carriage, or truck using such railway, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal servitude for life . . . F1 or to be imprisoned . . “   

                  

It was a good decade.  The Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act of the previous year created the offence of:

“….or who shall molest, let, disturb, vex, or trouble, or by any other unlawful means disquiet or misuse any preacher duly authorized to preach….”

I can remember being very pleased to charge someone with another offence in the same section, that of indecent behaviour in a churchyard.

I see from posters at my local railway station that s16 of the Railway Regulation Act 1840 is still being used (Wilful trespass and refuse to quit) and that the provisions of the Vagrancy Act 1824 are  available to deal with those pesky ex-soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars.  I am not sure of the current utility of someone being deemed an ‘incorrigible rogue’ but it’s there if the police need it.

Returning to the theme of wrongdoing in an ecclesiastical context I was pleased to see that modern legislation (Clergy Discipline Measure 2003) still uses the phrase ‘conduct unbecoming a clerk in holy orders’  and although this only applies to priests of the Church of England the offence gives a good idea of what it is used for.

Leaping back a few  centuries the Treason Acts 1351-1945 provide much happy reading starting with the wonderful description of treason in the (translated into English) Treason Act 1351:

“Whereas divers Opinions have been before this Time [X1in what Case Treason shall be said, and in what not;] the King, at the Request of the Lords and of the Commons, hath made a Declaration in the Manner as hereafter followeth, that is to say; When a Man doth compass or imagine the Death of our Lord the King, or of our Lady his [X2Queen] or of their eldest Son and Heir; or if a Man do violate the King’s [X2Companion,] or the King’s eldest Daughter unmarried, or the Wife (X3) the King’s eldest Son and Heir; or if a Man do levy War against our Lord the King in his Realm, or be adherent to the King’s Enemies in his Realm, giving to them Aid and Comfort in the Realm, or elsewhere, and thereof be [X4probably] attainted of open Deed by [X5the People] of their Condition: . . . F1, and if a Man slea the Chancellor, Treasurer, or the King’s Justices of the one Bench or the other, Justices in Eyre, or Justices of Assise, and all other Justices assigned to hear and determine, being in their Places, doing their Offices: And it is to be understood, that in the Cases above rehearsed, [X6that] ought to be judged Treason which extends to our Lord the King, and his Royal Majesty: . . .

But my favourite – for today at least – has to be the Easter Act 1928.  This meets the game’s requirement that the legislation has to be on the statute book but, alas, it has never been brought into effect.  Easter is, of course, a moveable feast.  The consequence of this is that nobody really knows when Easter will fall, thus complicating the booking of holidays and for making academic terms of unequal length.  Children ask a lot of questions and I can remember one of mine asking why Easter moves.  It was one of many questions from my offspring that have left me perplexed.  Of course the date of Easter can be readily calculated by remembering that Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.  What could be more straightforward?  But the result of this calculation depends on what calendar you are using.  The Orthodox churches use the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendars and Easter ends up being celebrated on different days depending on the where one sits on the Christian spectrum

In 1928 the Parliament of the United Kingdom decided that enough was enough.  Easter could not be allowed to wander around the calendar causing confusion every twelve (or even fourteen) months.  The Act fixed Easter as being the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April.  A calculation that did not require astronomical knowledge. The geographical impact of this legislation would have been widespread as in 1928 the reach of Westminster was a long one.  However section 2 of the Act required that before it came into force that due regard should be given to the opinions of Christian churches and organisations.  Given that the church has been discussing the issue since the Council of Nicea in AD 352 it is perhaps not surprising that the Easter Act 1928 is listed on Legislation.gov.uk as ‘prospective’. 

Legislation is not created for the amusement of the idle.  But it is helping me pass the long hours of the lockdown.  Anything is better than gardening or another Zoom call.

April 2020