Criminology and Justice: Legislation

What is Legislation?

Legislation are the laws and rules made by the Parliament, together with the process by which those that have been delegated the authority to enforce the rules.

Each State and the Commonwealth make their own legislation and, except in certain situations, Commonwealth law takes precedence over State legislation where there is an inconsistency.

Before an Act becomes law it is a Bill, which is often accompanied by an Explanatory Memorandum. Both of these documents, if available, can be found through the official legislation websites or the relevant parliament website. 

The current Western Australian Parliament Site only lists Bills that have been considered by Parliament since 35th Parliament, 1997, for earlier Bills, use AustLII.

Most Acts have Regulations or Rules that accompany them. For Commonwealth legislation, these are known as Legislative Instruments. For WA Legislation the regulations and rules are known as Subsidiary legislation. This 'delegated legislation' is often made by a person or body other than Parliament, under authority granted to that person or body by an Act of Parliament. Individually, delegated legislation is given a variety of names, such as 'regulations', 'by-laws', 'rules', 'ordinances', and 'orders-in-council.'

Note: Deligated legislation is referenced differently to legislation:

Delegated Body, Title (at Day Month Year).

You always need to check the currency of an Act or a Regulation. You can do this using State Law Publisher or the Federal Register of Legislation. Some Acts commence on assent and some on proclamation. Different parts of an Act can become operative at different times.

Acts and Regulations are usually progressively amended over time. The current versions that you see on State Law Publisher and the Federal Register of Legislation are consolidated. This means that amendments up to date have been incorporated into the most current version. Sometimes it is necessary to refer to a piece of legislation as at a date in the past. This can be done using links on State Law Publisher to 'ceased' or 'reprints'. On the Federal Register of Legislation the older versions of an act are listed under 'acts - historical' links.