Title: Keeping the statute book up to date: a personal view
Abstract: From the perspective of both the state and its citizens, it is vital that up‐to‐date versions of legislation relevant to an issue that concerns them are capable of being identified and accessed. If legislation is not readily and immediately accessible, finding it will prove to be a task that is beyond not only lay people but also competent and experienced lawyers. A principal cause of the difficulty encountered by users of statutes and statutory rules in finding the law on a particular topic that concerns them is that often the relevant provisions are to be found not in one self‐contained statute, but in a number of provisions scattered among a number of separate annual volumes. This article provides an overview of some historical and recent developments in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Jersey, and Canada, before proceeding to consider approaches by which responsible authorities keep their Statute Books accessible and coherent. It examines in detail the relative merits and demerits of the textual (or direct) method and the non‐textual (or indirect) methods of amendment. The article concludes that the benefits of having an up‐to‐date, accessible and coherent Statute Book must surely be obvious. Apart from the removal of the frustration, the cost savings to both the state and the private citizen in both time and effort are surely immense.