Snippets from The Reduced Law Dictionary by Roderick Ramage
Affirmative and negative affirmation procedures
Statutory Instruments required to be laid before Parliament come into operation on the date stated without further procedure: Statutory Instruments Act 1946 s4. If an Act provides for an instrument to be subject to annulment (the negative affirmation procedure) it may be annulled as a result of a resolution of either House of Parliament within forty days: ibid s5.
The affirmative resolution procedure requires that a draft of the instrument is laid before Parliament and is approved by a resolution. The European Communities Act 1972 Sch 2 para 2 provides that an instrument not subject to approval is subject to annulment.
Drafting documents
The draftsman must ascertain his client’s intention and the law. Conventionally a document starts with its brief description, date and the names of the parties, recites any background facts which are necessary and then continues with the operative clauses, moving from general to the detail, sometimes putting the latter into schedules. He must include everything that is necessary and nothing that is not necessary.
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