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Proposedbills are often categorized intopublic bills andprivate bills. A public bill is a proposedlaw which would apply to everyone within itsjurisdiction. A private bill is a proposal for a law affecting only a single person, group, or area, such as a bill granting a named personcitizenship or, previously, granting named persons a legislativedivorce.
Private law can afford relief from another law, grant a unique benefit or powers not available under the general law, or relieve someone from legal responsibility for some allegedly wrongful act. There are many examples of such private law indemocratic countries, although its use has changed over time. A private bill is not to be confused with aprivate member's bill, which is a bill introduced by a "private member" of the legislature rather than by theministry.
In modern practice, private bills are mixed and have both private and public aspects. In such cases the proposed legislation is called ahybrid bill.[1] Some public laws set out such narrow terms of applicability that they apply to only one person or organization, making themde facto private laws. This may be used (successfully or unsuccessfully) to get around prohibitions on certain kinds of public laws.
Public bills are the most common bills introduced in theParliament of the United Kingdom. If they are enacted, they becomepublic general acts (in contrast withlocal and personal acts).
Private bills create two types of act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The first are acts for the benefit of individuals (known as private or personal acts) which have historically often dealt with divorces or granting British nationality to foreigners, but in modern times are generally limited to authorising marriages which would otherwise not be legal.[2] The most recent such act was made in 1987.
The second type are public acts for the benefit of organisations, or authorising major projects such as railways or canals, or granting extra powers tolocal authorities (known as local acts).[3] Private bills were used in the nineteenth century to createcorporations and grantmonopolies. They are still used in relation to large infrastructure projects, such asHS2, where law is being created primarily to give effect to rights and powers being exercised by a private (even if largely state owned) entity.[4]
There is another classification known as ahybrid instrument which shares characteristics of both public and private bills. Hybrid bills become public acts.
Divorce inCanada prior to the passage of theDivorce Act of 1968 was sometimes handled by private laws.[5] If unavailable by administrative or judicial means, it was possible to obtain a legislative divorce by application to theSenate of Canada, which reviewed and investigatedpetitions for divorce, which would then be voted upon by the Senate and subsequently made into law.
Public bills are the most common type of law in the United States.
TheConstitution of the United States prohibitsbills of attainder in both state and federal legislatures, meaning private laws cannot be used to punish any specific individual or organization. This does not prohibit private laws which are favorable to a person or corporation.
In the United States, private bills were previously common. However, federal agencies are now able to deal with most of the issues that were previously dealt with under private bills as these agencies have been granted sufficient discretion by theUnited States Congress to deal with exceptions to the general legislative scheme of various laws. The kinds of private bills that are still introduced include grants ofcitizenship to individuals who are otherwise ineligible for normalvisa processing; alleviation of tax liabilities; armed services decorations; and veteran benefits.[examples needed]
