Statute

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Statute \Stat"ute\ (-[-u]t), n. [F. statut, LL. statutum, from
     L. statutus, p. p. of statuere to set, station, ordain, fr.
     status position, station, fr. stare, statum, to stand. See
     {Stand}, and cf. {Constitute}, {Destitute}.]
     1. An act of the legislature of a state or country,
        declaring, commanding, or prohibiting something; a


        positive law; the written will of the legislature
        expressed with all the requisite forms of legislation; --
        used in distinction from {common law}. See {Common law},
        under {Common}, a. --Bouvier.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Statute is commonly applied to the acts of a
           legislative body consisting of representatives. In
           monarchies, the laws of the sovereign are called
           edicts, decrees, ordinances, rescripts, etc. In works
           on international law and in the Roman law, the term is
           used as embracing all laws imposed by competent
           authority. Statutes in this sense are divided into
           statutes real, statutes personal, and statutes mixed;
           statutes real applying to immovables; statutes personal
           to movables; and statutes mixed to both classes of
           property.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. An act of a corporation or of its founder, intended as a
        permanent rule or law; as, the statutes of a university.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. An assemblage of farming servants (held possibly by
        statute) for the purpose of being hired; -- called also
        {statute fair}. [Eng.] Cf. 3d {Mop}, 2. --Halliwell.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Statute book}, a record of laws or legislative acts.
        --Blackstone.
  
     {Statute cap}, a kind of woolen cap; -- so called because
        enjoined to be worn by a statute, dated in 1571, in behalf
        of the trade of cappers. [Obs.] --Halliwell.
  
     {Statute fair}. See {Statute}, n., 3, above.
  
     {Statute labor}, a definite amount of labor required for the
        public service in making roads, bridges, etc., as in
        certain English colonies.
  
     {Statute merchant} (Eng. Law), a bond of record pursuant to
        the stat. 13 Edw. I., acknowledged in form prescribed, on
        which, if not paid at the day, an execution might be
        awarded against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor,
        and the obligee might hold the lands until out of the
        rents and profits of them the debt was satisfied; --
        called also a {pocket judgment}. It is now fallen into
        disuse. --Tomlins. --Bouvier.
  
     {Statute mile}. See under {Mile}.
  
     {Statute of limitations} (Law), a statute assigning a certain
        time, after which rights can not be enforced by action.
  
     {Statute staple}, a bond of record acknowledged before the
        mayor of the staple, by virtue of which the creditor may,
        on nonpayment, forthwith have execution against the body,
        lands, and goods of the debtor, as in the statute
        merchant. It is now disused. --Blackstone.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Act; regulation; edict; decree. See {Law}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  statute
       adj : enacted by a legislative body; "statute law"; "codified
             written laws" [syn: {codified}, {statute(p)}]
       n : an act passed by a legislative body [syn: {legislative act}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  67 Moby Thesaurus words for "statute":
     Eighteenth Amendment, Prohibition Party, Volstead Act, act, assize,
     ban, bill, bylaw, canon, contraband, decree, decretum, denial,
     dictate, dictation, disallowance, edict, embargo, enactment,
     exclusion, forbiddance, forbidden fruit, forbidding, form,
     formality, formula, formulary, index, index expurgatorius,
     index librorum prohibitorum, inhibition, injunction, institution,
     interdict, interdiction, interdictum, jus, law, legislation, lex,
     measure, no-no, ordinance, ordonnance, precept, preclusion,
     prescript, prescription, prevention, prohibition,
     prohibitory injunction, proscription, refusal, regulation,
     rejection, repression, restrictive covenants, rubric, rule, ruling,
     ruling out, standing order, sumptuary laws, suppression, taboo,
     zoning, zoning laws
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  STATUTE. The written will of the legislature, solemnly expressed according 
  to the forms prescribed in the constitution; an act of the legislature. 
       2. This word is used in contradistinction to the common law. Statutes 
  acquire their force from the time of their passage unless otherwise 
  provided. 7 Wheat. R. 104: 1 Gall. R. 62. 
       3. It is a general rule that when the provision of a statute is 
  general, everything which is necessary to make such provision effectual is 
  supplied by the common law; Co. Litt. 235; 2 Inst. 222; Bac. Ab. h.t. B; and 
  when a power is given by statute, everything necessary for making it 
  effectual is given by implication: quando le aliquid concedit, concedere 
  videtur et id pe quod devenitur ad aliud. 12 Co. 130, 131 2 Inst. 306. 
       4. Statutes are of several kinds; namely, Public or private. 1. Public 
  statutes are those of which the judges will take notice without pleading; 
  as, those which concern all officers in general; acts concerning trade in 
  general or any specific trade; acts concerning all persons generally. 2. 
  Private acts, are those of which the judges will not take notice without 
  pleading; such as concern only a particular species, or person; as, acts 
  relating to any particular place, or to several particular places, or to one 
  or several particular counties. Private statutes may be rendered public by 
  being so declared by the legislature. Bac. Ab. h.t. F; 1 Bl. Com. 85. 
  Declaratory or remedial. 1. A declaratory statute is one which is passed in 
  order to put an end to a doubt as to what the common law is, and which 
  declares what it is, and has ever been. 2. Remedial statutes are those which 
  are made to supply such defects, and abridge such superfluities in the 
  common law as may have been discovered. 1 Bl. Com. 86. These remedial 
  statutes are themselves divided into enlarging statutes, by which the common 
  law is made more comprehensive and extended than it was before; and into 
  restraining statutes, by which it is narrowed down to that which is just and 
  proper. The term remedial statute is also applied to those acts which give 
  the party injured a remedy, and in some respects those statutes are penal. 
  Esp. Pen. Act. 1. 
       6. Temporary or perpetual. 1. A temporary statute is one which is 
  limited in its duration at the time of its enactment. It continues in force 
  until the time of its limitation has expired, unless sooner repealed. 2. A 
  perpetual statute is one for the continuance of which there is no limited 
  time, although it be not expressly declared to be so. If, however, a statute 
  which did not itself contain any limitation, is to be governed by another 
  which is temporary only, the former will also be temporary and dependent 
  upon the existence of the latter. Bac. Ab. h.t. D. 
       7. Affirmative or negative. 1. An affirmative statute is one which is 
  enacted in affirmative terms; such a statute does not take away the common 
  law. If, for example, a statute without negative words, declares that when 
  certain requisites shall have been complied with, deeds shall, have in 
  evidence a certain effect, this does not prevent their being used in 
  evidence, though the requisites have not been complied with, in the same 
  manner as they might have been before the statute was passed. 2 Cain. R. 
  169. 2. A negative statute is one expressed in negative terms, and so 
  controls the common law, that it has no force in opposition to the statute. 
  Bro. Parl. pl. 72; Bac. Ab. h.t. G. 
       8. Penal statutes are those which order or prohibit a thing under a 
  certain penalty. Esp. Pen. Actions, 5 Bac. Ab. h.t. I, 9. Vide, generally, 
  Bac. Ab. h.t.; Com. Dig. Parliament; Vin. Ab. h.t.; Dane's Ab. Index, h.t.; 
  Chit. Pr. Index, h.t.; 1 Kent, Com. 447-459; Barrington on the Statutes, 
  Boscaw. on Pen. Stat.; Esp. on Penal Actions and Statutes. 
       9. Among the civilians, the term statute is generally applied to all 
  sorts of laws and regulations; every provision of law which ordains, 
  permits, or prohibits anything is a statute without considering from what 
  source it arises. Sometimes the word is used in contradistinction to the 
  imperial Roman law, which, by way of eminence, civilians call the common 
  law. They divide statutes into three classes, personal, real and mixed. 
       10. Personal statutes are those which have principally for their object 
  the person, and treat of property only incidentally; such are those which 
  regard birth, legitimacy, freedom, the fight of instituting suits, majority 
  as to age, incapacity to contract, to make a will, to plead in person, and 
  the like. A personal statute is universal in its operation, and in force 
  everywhere. 
       11. Real statutes are those which have principally for their object, 
  property, and which do not speak of persons, except in relation to property; 
  such are those which concern the disposition, which one may make of his 
  property either alive or by testament. A real statute, unlike a personal 
  one, is confined in its operation to the country of its origin. 
       12. Mixed statutes are those which concern at once both persons and 
  property. But in this sense almost all statutes are mixed, there being 
  scarcely any law relative to persons, which does not at the same time relate 
  to things. Vide Merl. Repert. mot Statut; Poth. Cout. d'Orleans, ch. 1; 17 
  Martin's Rep. 569-589; Story's Confl. of Laws, Sec. 12, et seq.; Bouv. Inst. 
  Index, h.t.