In law, consolidation is a process which enables several legislative acts to be combined into a single expression of the law, as a means of presenting legal information in a single document for convenience, but without replacing the substantive legal acts themselves (pure consolidation). The formation of a single act which replaces those which are incorporated into it is called recasting. So, recasting often creates a new legal version of a law, while in consolidation, the original law, resolution or treaty remains the only legally authentic text and consolidated versions of them found in databases are usually for reference only.
United Nations
In 2001 the United Nations transferred its platform for electronic storage and distribution of documents, in operation since 1991, from internal accessibility to Web-based access, called the Official Document System (ODS).
The United Nations maintains several consolidation systems of legislation for international law (treaties, legislation, sanctions lists), and specific areas of national or supranational legislation, though it does not consolidate all national laws of all member states into one single repository. National laws are essential for comparative legal studies and for monitoring a State's compliance with the international instruments it has ratified.
The UN recasting focuses on codification, the process of systematizing and formulating rules of international law. This is led by the International Law Commission (ILC), which prepares draft articles that the General Assembly may later adopt as new international conventions.
European Union
Where a European Union (EU) Directive or Regulation has been extended by several amendments, which amend or add to an established Directive or Regulation which remains in force, the European Commission often publishes a "consolidated version" of the act which enables all of its components to be seen in one place, for example there is a consolidated text covering Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on European standardisation along with various further acts which apply in the same field. This type of consolidated document "is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect".
The European Forum of Official Gazettes (EFOG) plays a key role in supporting the development of best practices for the consolidation and codification of legislation across Europe.
United Kingdom
A consolidation bill in the United Kingdom is a bill introduced into the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the intention of consolidating several acts of Parliament or statutory instruments into a single act. Such bills simplify the statute book without significantly changing the state of the law, and are subject to an expedited parliamentary procedure. Once enacted a consolidation bill becomes a consolidation act.
The parliamentary practice of legislating only for small portions of a subject at a time can create undue complexity in statute law. Acts relating to a particular subject often end up scattered over many years, and through the operation of clauses partially repealing or amending former acts, the specific meaning of the law regarding the subject becomes enveloped in intricate or contradictory expressions. For clarity, the law as expressed across many statutes is sometimes recast in a single statute, called a consolidation bill.
By 1911, such bills had been passed dealing with subjects as diverse as customs, stamps and stamp duties, public health, weights and measures, sheriffs, coroners, county courts, housing, municipal corporations, libraries, trustees, copyhold, diseases of animals, merchant shipping, and friendly societies.
These observations apply to the public general acts of the legislature. On the other hand, in settling local acts, such as those relating to railway and canal enterprise, the legislature always inserted certain clauses founded on reasons of public policy applicable to the business in question. To avoid the necessity of constantly re-enacting the same principles in local acts, their common clauses were embodied in separate statutes, and their provisions are ordered to be incorporated in any local act of the description mentioned therein. Such are the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 18),the Companies Clauses Act 1863 and the Railways Clauses Act 1863.
Procedure
Consolidation bills are introduced in the House of Lords which, by convention, has primacy in these matters. The Lords has the only substantive discussion on the bill, at its second reading, before the bill is sent to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills, which may propose amendments to it. Subject to this, the Lords' third reading and all readings in the House of Commons are usually formalities and pass without debate.—either the Law Commission (in England and Wales), the Scottish Law Commission or the Northern Ireland Law Commission—and it is this prior consideration that gives rise to the expedited process afforded to these bills. Every consolidation bill proposed by the Law Commission has been passed by Parliament.
Once a consolidation bill receives royal assent it becomes a consolidation act. An example of a consolidation act is the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, which consolidated into a single act parts of sentencing legislation previously spread across twelve separate acts. Another example of a consolidation act in relation to sentencing is the Sentencing Act 2020, which significantly replaced many acts in relation to sentencing including the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000.
Categories
There are five categories of bill which qualify as consolidation bills:
- Bills which only re-enact existing law.
- Bills which consolidate previous laws with amendments, proposed in response to recommendations from the Law Commission.
- Bills to repeal existing legislation, again prepared by the Law Commission.
- Bills to repeal various obsolete or unnecessary parts of existing legislation.
- Bills which make corrections and minor improvements to existing legislation, prepared under the Consolidation of Enactments (Procedure) Act 1949.
The first three categories now account for almost all consolidation bills. "Tax Law Rewrite" acts are not included:
;1990s onwards