Statute Laws
Statute Laws are those laws that are made by Parliament. Statute Laws can be made either directly, through the passing of Acts of Parliament, or indirectly, through the creation of Statutory Instruments that contain rules and regulations. Yearly, Parliament creates around one hundred laws through Acts of Parliament and creates around two thousand Statutory Instruments.Sometimes Parliament will pass a very general law and leave the relevant minister to fill in the details since that minister is often in the best position to do this. Delegating such lawmaking powers to ministers ensures expediency and efficiently in the lawmaking process since the Minister does not have to return to Parliament each time a change in circumstances result in the need for a change in law. Really, the delegation of these powers results in the ministers becoming lawmakers themselves.
Statute laws have come to be regarded as having special significance because they contain rules relating to certain rights or duties of the citizen or to how the government of the country should be organised. The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 is an example of a statute of constitutional significance. Other examples include the Representation of the People Acts which stipulate the rules under which elections take place and the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1914 which place limits on the House of Lords.
Parliament can pass any law it wishes which allows statute law to take precedence over other sources of the constitution. However, this does not mean that it is all-powerful. For example, in 1972, Parliament passed the European Communities Act which led to Britain joining the European Economic Community. Although the EEC said that European Law is binding and that it takes precedence over domestic law, it is possible to argue that Parliament has the power to repeal the Act at any time which therefore states that statute law still takes precedence over European law.