Repeal

Lore & Background

Removal of secondary legislation is normally referred to as revocation rather than repeal in the United Kingdom and Ireland. A partial repeal occurs when a specified part or provision of a previous Act is repealed but other provisions remain in force; a full repeal occurs where the entire Act in question is repealed. Repeal without replacement is generally done when a law is no longer effective or is shown to have far more negative consequences than originally envisioned.

Reader's Guide

Repeal is a fundamental mechanism in legal systems for updating or removing laws. It can be express, where explicit words in a statute repeal an earlier one, or implied, where two statutes are mutually inconsistent and the later statute repeals the earlier one pro tanto. In the United States, all repeals of parts of the U.S. Code are express, requiring Congress to pass a new law containing repeal language. Repeals can be with or without savings; a repeal without savings eliminates the repealed statute completely, while a repeal with savings preserves its effect for limited purposes. In parliamentary procedure, the motion to rescind, repeal, or annul requires a two-thirds vote, a majority vote with previous notice, or a vote of a majority of the entire membership under Robert's Rules of Order, while The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure requires only the same vote and notice as the original action.

Did You Know?

• The repeal of a statute under common law of England and Wales was said to 'obliterate it completely from the records of Parliament as though it had never been passed.'
• The Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, making it the only constitutional amendment ever repealed in the United States.
• A repeal without replacement is generally done when a law is no longer effective or has far more negative consequences than originally envisioned.

Gallery