Why you should read laws carefully
Jan. 10th, 2010 06:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marnanel[background: the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1857 allowed people to divorce using divorce courts. Prior to this, you had to get a private Act of Parliament passed which said you were no longer married. This was difficult and expensive, as you may imagine.]
From Hansard, 20 February 1969:
The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Mr. Arthur Skeffington): On several occasions I have been in the position occupied tonight by the hon. Member for Hornsey (Mr. Rossi), and I congratulate him on the admirable clarity with which he introduced this complex Bill. I am sure that he did it very much better than I could have done.
The hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Graham Page) is right to say that, on these occasions, the House should find some time, although not at too great a length, to look at the principal provisions, because precedents have a peculiar way of recurring, although I do not think they go so far, usually, as the Section introduced into the Liverpool Corporation Act prior to the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1857.
Section 87 of the Liverpool Corporation Act went through the House at a late hour. It said, "The town clerk's marriage is hereby dissolved". Thus, the town clerk got his own private Act of Parliament and I gather that succeeding town clerks of Liverpool took advantage of the provision for some years until the matter was put right in the 1857 Act.
From Hansard, 20 February 1969:
The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Mr. Arthur Skeffington): On several occasions I have been in the position occupied tonight by the hon. Member for Hornsey (Mr. Rossi), and I congratulate him on the admirable clarity with which he introduced this complex Bill. I am sure that he did it very much better than I could have done.
The hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Graham Page) is right to say that, on these occasions, the House should find some time, although not at too great a length, to look at the principal provisions, because precedents have a peculiar way of recurring, although I do not think they go so far, usually, as the Section introduced into the Liverpool Corporation Act prior to the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1857.
Section 87 of the Liverpool Corporation Act went through the House at a late hour. It said, "The town clerk's marriage is hereby dissolved". Thus, the town clerk got his own private Act of Parliament and I gather that succeeding town clerks of Liverpool took advantage of the provision for some years until the matter was put right in the 1857 Act.
