Law Revision Act, 2020
Act 4 of 2020
An Act to provide for the revision of laws and for related matters.BE IT ENACTED by Parliament as follows:
Part I – Preliminary
1. Interpretation
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—“Commission” means the Uganda Law Reform Commission established by the Uganda Law Reform Commission Act;“Revised Edition” means any Revised Edition of the Laws of Uganda prepared under this Act.
Part II – Preparation of Revised Edition
2. Commission to prepare Revised Edition
(1)The Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Commission and by statutory instrument, order a Revised Edition to be prepared by the Commission.
(2)Notwithstanding subsection (1), the Attorney General shall ensure that a Revised Edition is prepared every ten years from the date of the last Revised Edition.
(3)For the purposes of subsection (1), the Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Commission, by statutory instrument, appoint the following persons to assist the Commission in the preparation of a Revised Edition—
(a)one person to represent the Attorney General;
(b)one person to represent the Solicitor General;
(c)the First Parliamentary Counsel or his or her representative;
(d)two persons with considerable knowledge and experience in the revision of laws or legislative drafting; and
(e)the Clerk to Parliament or his or her representative.
(4)The terms and conditions of a person appointed under subsection (3) shall be specified in the instrument of appointment.
3. Attorney General to approve printing and publication of Revised Edition
(1)The Commission shall, after a Revised Edition is prepared, submit the Revised Edition to the Attorney General for approval.
(2)The Attorney General may, upon receipt of the Revised Edition in subsection (1), approve the Revised Edition or any volume of it and order, by statutory instrument, the printing and publication of the Revised Edition.
(3)An instrument made under subsection (2) shall be laid before Parliament for information.
Part III – Validity of Revised Edition
4. Bringing a Revised Edition into force
(1)The Attorney General shall, by statutory instrument, appoint a date on which the Revised Edition shall come into force.
(2)An instrument made under subsection (1) shall be laid before Parliament for information.
5. Validity of the Revised Edition
From the date the Revised Edition comes into force, all Acts, statutory instruments and legal notices included in the Revised Edition, or any volume of any of those documents, shall be taken for all purposes to be the laws of Uganda and shall be judicially noticed.
6. Revised Edition to be authentic text
The Revised Edition is in all courts and for all purposes the sole authentic text of the Laws of Uganda.
7. Continuance of text of revised laws for certain purposes
The inclusion or exclusion of a law from the Revised Edition does not affect any civil or criminal proceedings previously commenced under that law, but every such proceeding may be continued and concluded in all respects as if the law has not been so included or excluded.
8. Construction of references to repealed or amended enactments
Where in any enactment or in any instrument or document, reference is made to any written law which is repealed or otherwise affected by the operation of this Act, the reference shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be deemed to be a reference to the corresponding law comprised in a Revised Edition and all cross references in that enactment, instrument or document shall, where they are affected by the operation of this Act, be construed with such modification as circumstances require.
Part IV – Contents of Revised Edition
9. Contents of any Revised Edition
(1)Every Revised Edition shall, subject to this Act, contain—
(a)the Uganda Independence Act, 1962;
(b)the Uganda Act, 1964, of the United Kingdom;
(c)the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda;
(d)Acts and statutory instruments and legal notices in force on the date specified by the Attorney General by notice in the Gazette; and
(e)any Acts, statutory instruments and legal notices which have been enacted but not yet brought into operation on the date specified by the Attorney General under subsection (1)(d).
(2)Each Act shall form a separate chapter, and the chapters shall be arranged under such titles as the Commission shall determine.
(3)Below the number of each chapter, the Commission shall set out the short title of the Act and the date of commencement of the Act.
(4)Statutory instruments shall be grouped into chapters on the basis of the Acts they implement.
(5)Statutory instruments may be placed within the same chapter as the Act they implement or in a separate chapter at the discretion of the Commission.
(6)Legal notices may be placed in an appropriate location as determined by the Commission.
(7)The Commission shall set forth a history note for each Act, statutory instrument and legal notice.
(8)This section shall not be construed as preventing the Commission from including in any Revised Edition any Act, statutory instrument or legal notice enacted after the date specified by the Attorney General under subsection (1) (d) and all Acts, statutory instruments and legal notices so included shall be taken to form part of the Revised Edition and have effect accordingly.
(9)Notwithstanding subsection (1)(d), the Commission may omit from the Revised Edition, any Act or statutory instrument which is in force on the date specified by the Attorney General under subsection (1) (d), but which is repealed before the coming into force of the Revised Edition.
Part V – Powers of the Commission in the preparation of Revised Edition
10. Powers of Commission
Subject to any directions that may be given in writing by the Attorney General, the Commission shall, in the preparation of a Revised Edition have the following powers—
(a)to omit—
(i)all Acts, statutory instruments, legal notices or any part of those documents which have been expressly repealed or which have had full effect;
(ii)all repealing Acts, statutory instruments, legal notices or any part of those documents and all tables and lists of repealed enactments, whether contained in Schedules or otherwise;
(iii)all amending Acts, statutory instruments, legal notices or any part of those documents where such amendments have been incorporated in the Act, statutory instrument or legal notice to which they relate;
(iv)all preambles to Acts, statutory instruments, legal notices or any part of them, where the omission can, in the opinion of the Commission, conveniently be made;
(v)all words of enactment in any Act, statutory instrument or legal notice;
(vi)all provisions appointing the date when an Act, statutory instrument, legal notice or any part of those documents is to come into force, where the omission can, in the opinion of the Commission, conveniently be made;
(vii)all statutory instruments made under the authority of Acts which have been repealed and not re-enacted;
(viii)all Appropriation Acts and Supplementary Appropriation Acts;
(ix)all statutory instruments granting remission of tax, customs tariff duties, excise duties and similar measures to the extent the omission is approved by the Attorney General by statutory instrument;
(x)all statutory instruments which the Attorney General has, by statutory instrument, specified as inconsistent with any Act repealing and re-enacting the Act under which the statutory instrument was made;
(xi)all expressions which have become obsolete as a result of constitutional changes or changes specified in Acts, statutory instruments, legal notices and substitute the expressions authorised by those changes;
(b)to renumber sections, paragraphs and other subdivisions in an amended Act, statutory instrument or legal notice;
(c)to redesignate legal notices as statutory instruments;
(d)to arrange the Acts, statutory instruments and legal notices in any sequence and groups that may be convenient, irrespective of the dates of enactment;
(e)to correct cross references;
(f)to correct grammatical and typographical errors, and for that purpose, to make additions, omissions or alterations;
(g)to make capitalisation consistent;
(h)to make such formal alterations as to names, localities, offices and otherwise as may be necessary to bring an Act, statutory instrument or legal notice into conformity with the circumstances in Uganda;
(i)to make reviser's notes and footnotes where necessary;
(j)to add such indexes, tables and other editorial features as the Commission considers appropriate;
(k)to provide editorial notes by way of amplification; and
(l)to do all things relating to form and method which, in the opinion of the Commission, are necessary or useful for perfecting the Revised Edition.
11. No power to change substance and meaning
This Act shall not be taken to grant to the Commission the power to make any alteration or amendments in the substance of any enactment.
12. Power to modify references to UK Acts
Where in any law to be included in the Revised Edition, a reference is made to any enactment of the United Kingdom or England, the Attorney General may, by statutory instrument, direct that the reference should be omitted or that the law shall be modified in a particular manner taking into account changes, if any, in the law of Uganda.
13. Permanent Secretaries to furnish proposals
(1)For the better performance of the Commission’s duties under this Act, every Permanent Secretary shall, within sixty days after receiving a request for proposals on a Revised Edition, send to the Commission, proposals, if any, on the alteration authorised under this Act in any Act, statutory instrument or legal notice being administered by the department under that Permanent Secretary’s supervision.
(2)Where the Commission does not receive any proposals from a Permanent Secretary within the specified time, the Commission shall take it that the Permanent Secretary has no proposals to make and shall proceed with the preparation of the Revised Edition.
Part VI – Form and printing of Revised Edition
14. Volumes to be printed
The Revised Edition shall be printed in the number of volumes and format determined by the Commission.
15. Printing of Revised Edition
A Revised Edition shall be printed by the Government Printer.
Part VII – Miscellaneous
16. Commission to prepare reprints
(1)The Commission shall prepare a reprint of an Act which has been amended, with the authority of the Attorney General, with all the necessary additions, omissions, substitutions and amendments effected by the amending Act.
(2)The Attorney General may, by statutory order, approve the Act reprinted under subsection (1) and shall, in that order appoint a day from which every copy of the Act reprinted shall be judicially noticed as an authentic copy of the Act as amended.
17. Saving in respect of Revised Edition before commencement of this Act
The first Revised Edition prepared under this Act may be brought into force notwithstanding that it was not prepared with the assistance of the persons referred to in section 2(3).
18. Consequential amendment of Acts of Parliament Act, Cap. 2
The Acts of Parliament Act is amended by repealing section 18.