Astatute is a law or formal written enactment of alegislature.[1][2] Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something.[2] Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known ascommon law) in that they are the expressed will of a legislative body,[2][3] whether that be on the behalf of a country, state or province, county,municipality, or so on.[2] They are also distinguished fromsecondary legislation, or regulations, that are issued by an executive body under authority granted by a statute. Depending on the legal system, a statute may also be referred to as an "act."[1][4][5][6]
The word appears in use in English as early as the 14th century.[7] "Statute" and earlier English spellings were derived from the Old French wordsstatut,estatut,estatu, meaning "(royal) promulgation, (legal) statute." These terms were in turn derived from the Late Latinstatutum, meaning "a law, decree."[7][8]
In virtually all countries, newly enacted statutes are published and distributed so that everyone can look up the statutory law. This can be done in the form of agovernment gazette, which may include other kinds of legal notices released by the government, or in the form of a series of books whose content is limited to legislative acts. In either form, statutes are traditionally published in chronological order based on date of enactment.[citation needed]
A universal problem encountered by lawmakers throughout human history is how to organize published statutes. Such publications have a habit of starting small but growing rapidly over time, as new statutes are enacted in response to the exigencies of the moment. Eventually, persons trying to find the law are forced to sort through an enormous number of statutes enacted at various points in time to determine which portions are still in effect.[citation needed]
The solution adopted in many countries is to organize existing statutory law in topical arrangements (or"codified") within publications calledcodes, then ensure that new statutes are consistently drafted so that they add, amend, repeal or move various code sections. In turn, in theory, the code will thenceforth reflect the current cumulative state of the statutory law in that jurisdiction. In many nations statutory law is distinguished from and subordinate toconstitutional law.[citation needed]
In theautonomous communities of Spain, an autonomy statute is a legal document similar to theconstitution of afederated state, save that it is enacted by the national legislature, rather than the autonomous community it governs. The autonomy statutes in Spain have the rank ofley orgánica (organic law), a category of special legislation reserved for the main institutions and issues and mentioned in the constitution (the highest ranking legal instrument in Spain).Leyes orgánicas rank between the constitution and ordinary laws. The name was chosen, among others, to avoid confusion with the termconstitution (i.e. the Spanish constitution of 1978).[citation needed]
