This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Revised Statutes of Canada | |
|---|---|
| Name | Revised Statutes of Canada |
| Country | Canada |
| Subject | Statute law consolidation |
| First issued | 1886 |
| Latest edition | 1985 (consolidated), ongoing electronic updates |
Revised Statutes of Canada.
The Revised Statutes of Canada are the consolidated print and electronic editions that compile federal statutes enacted by the Parliament of Canada, serving as an authoritative reference for practitioners, scholars, judges, and agencies such as the Supreme Court of Canada, Department of Justice (Canada), and Parliament of Canada legislative drafters. They appear alongside other codifications like the Consolidated Statutes of Canada and interact with jurisprudence from bodies including the Federal Court of Canada, provincial courts, and tribunals such as the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. The consolidation work has been informed by legal traditions traced to the British North America Act, 1867, later instruments like the Canada Act 1982, and comparative models exemplified by the Revised Statutes of Ontario and the Statutes of the United Kingdom.
The origins date to post-Confederation efforts to organize statutes after the passage of the British North America Act, 1867 and early federal statutes affecting institutions including the Canadian Pacific Railway charters and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Early consolidations, influenced by legal publishing practices from the Westminster system and printers such as Carswell and Butterworths, culminated in formal print revisions in 1886, 1906, 1927, 1952, and 1970 before the comprehensive 1985 consolidation that responded to constitutional developments from the Statute of Westminster 1931 through the Canada Act 1982. Key figures in administrative oversight included officials from the Department of Justice (Canada) and clerks of the House of Commons of Canada and Senate of Canada, while jurisprudential leaders at the Supreme Court of Canada influenced interpretations incorporated during revisions.
Consolidation follows a technical procedure managed by staff within the Minister of Justice (Canada) portfolio and publishing partners such as Public Works and Government Services Canada and private firms with historical ties to Carswell. The process cross-references enactments from sessions of the Parliament of Canada and instruments like Orders in Council issued under the authority of the Governor General of Canada, reconciling amendments to statutes including the Criminal Code (Canada), the Income Tax Act, and social welfare statutes that intersect with programs administered by Employment and Social Development Canada. Editors integrate legislative amendments, repeals, and renumberings, guided by rules that echo practices of the Law Commission of Canada and comparative models from the United Kingdom Law Commission and the Australian Law Reform Commission.
The consolidated texts possess persuasive authority for interpretation and are frequently cited in decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, and provincial appellate courts, with the official force of law deriving from enactments passed by the Parliament of Canada and assented to by the Monarch of Canada. While the Revised Statutes function as authoritative consolidations, courts often consider them alongside legislative history involving figures such as the Prime Minister of Canada, committee reports from the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, and constitutional frameworks like the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Administrative bodies including the Canada Revenue Agency and regulatory tribunals reference consolidated texts when applying statutes such as the Customs Act and the Canada Labour Code.
Organizationally, editions arrange statutes into titles, parts, and sections mirroring legislative structure found in acts such as the Competition Act (Canada), the Patent Act (Canada), and the Canada Elections Act, with schedules and transitional provisions incorporating instruments like the Order in Council practice. Content spans criminal law exemplified by the Criminal Code (Canada), fiscal statutes including the Excise Tax Act, intellectual property regimes such as the Copyright Act (Canada), and regulatory statutes governing bodies like Transport Canada and Health Canada. Indexing and table of statutes facilitate cross-reference to landmark statutes such as the Indian Act, the Fisheries Act, and the Bank Act, while annotations may cite precedent from courts including the Ontario Court of Appeal and the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Major printed revisions historically occurred every few decades—1886, 1906, 1927, 1952, 1970, 1985—reflecting legislative volume and constitutional change, while modern practice emphasizes continuous electronic updating aligned with parliamentary sessions and statutory amendments enacted by the Parliamentary Counsel Office and published in the Canada Gazette. Interim consolidations and annual updates reconcile amendments from Acts passed in sessions chaired by successive Speakers of the House of Commons of Canada, and emergency or omnibus statutes such as those addressing economic crises or public health measures require expedited integration comparable to rapid consolidations seen in other jurisdictions like the United Kingdom and Australia.
Publication has transitioned from authoritative print runs issued by government printers to digital databases maintained by the Department of Justice (Canada) and third-party legal publishers including LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters (Canada), with parallel distribution through parliamentary libraries such as the Library of Parliament and law school repositories at institutions like the University of Toronto and the Université de Montréal. Electronic dissemination connects to open data initiatives and archival projects similar to those run by the Public Record Office in other countries, enhancing access for practitioners, scholars affiliated with the Canadian Bar Association, and the public.
The Revised Statutes have improved statutory clarity for litigators appearing before courts including the Supreme Court of British Columbia and policymakers in departments such as Fisheries and Oceans Canada, yet criticisms persist regarding timeliness, the potential for consolidation errors noted by commentators from the Canadian Bar Association, and limitations in capturing legislative intent debated in academic fora at the University of Ottawa and the McGill University Faculty of Law. Reform advocates cite examples from the Law Commission of Canada and international comparators like the United Kingdom Law Commission to argue for enhanced editorial standards, more frequent updates, and improved metadata to better serve tribunals such as the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and regulatory agencies including the National Energy Board (Canada).
Category:Canadian federal legislation