BRIEFLY HIGHLIGHT THREE (3) MATTERS CONTAINED IN A PRELIMINARY PART OF A BILL


COURSE TITLE:  LEGAL DRAFTING AND CONVEYANCING
COURSE CODE:  PPL 438
 
COMMENCEMENTS
Section 2 (1)  of the interpretation Act  provides that  “ an  Act is passed when the President assents to the Bill for the Act whether or no the Act then comes into force”. By this is meant that when the Act or Law is passed is different from when it becomes operative. An Act or law may become operative on a given date or a date in the past or future.

According to section  2 (2)  of the interpretation Act, where no other provision   is made as to the particular time an enactment is to become operative, it shall come into force on the day the Act is passed; in any other case, on the day the enactment is made. In the case of KAYODE V SARAKI,[1] the court held that when there is no provision as to commencement in a law, the law shall be deemed to come into force on the date it was passed.
In drafting commencement date, two ways could be followed: 
1.      If  the date is  fixed or in the future or the past, the date is inserted  immediately  after the long  title at the  extreme top right without making it a section, though  it has a marginal note “commencement”
2.      If  it is intended that the Act of Law shall commence on the occurrence of an  event  or by the authority of a person, the commencement date is written as sections in the Act or Law

APPLICATION
The application provision is legislation states the specific things, persons or places the law covers. It is necessary in the Act or law is not intended to apply  to   all persons and the entire country, or is limited to  a particular subject matter.  The general rule is that legislations are meant to apply to all persons within the jurisdictional Competence of the enacting authority. Hence, the 1999 constitution and  the companies and Allied Matters Act  1990  do not have application provision because  they are intended to apply to all persons in Nigeria.
The application section gives an indication of the area of coverage of the statute.  It   serves to remove uncertainties and solve problems as to the manner a new law will affect variety of situations.
For instance :
a.       This Act  shall not  apply to  non – Nigerian citizens ( The  National Youth Service  Corps  Act)
b.      “ This Act shall extend to the Northern part of Nigeria”

DEFINITIONS
Definitions are used to achieve two purposes;  to  give the meaning of  some words or concepts used throughout the Bill;  and  to reduce the length  of  the legislation by avoiding repetition. In the North American case of COMMONWEALTH V  MASSINI,  the  court described the relevance of the definitions  thus:
Where the legislature   defines the words it uses  in a statute neither  the jury nor the court may define them otherwise … The legislature may create its own dictionary, and its definition  may be  different from ordinary  usage.  When it does  define the words used  in a statute, the courts need  not  refer to  the  technical meaning and deviation of those words as given in  dictionaries, but   must accept    the statutory definitions”
When defining  words in a subsidiary legislation , drafters must obey the strict rule in section 19 (1)  of the  interpretation Act, which  provides  that an expression used in a subsidiary instrument  has the  same meaning  as in the Act  conferring power to make the instrument. Therefore when  drafting subsidiary  legislation, the drafter cannot give words in the  subsidiary  legislation a meaning  that is  different from the meaning  from  the  meaning  given to the  word  by the principal legislation .


[1] (1994)  7-8 SCNJ (Pt. 111) pg .524
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