Daniel Greenberg laments the introduction of nonsense legislation
It is a fundamental principle of legislative drafting that each legislative proposition must confer a right or impose a duty and be enforceable. The principle has been disregarded with increasing frequency, with Acts containing material that is at best merely administrative and at worst wholly nugatory. As a mark of how far the trend has gone, in 2010 Parliament has enacted two entire Acts without a single genuine legislative proposition.
The Anti-Slavery Day Act 2010 originated as a private Member’s Bill. It starts with a superficially plausible legislative proposition—“The secretary of state shall by order made by statutory instrument specify a date which shall be observed each year as Anti-Slavery Day.” But how is the day to be observed, and by whom, and what will happen if they don’t? As an advertising campaign the Act may achieve something (although probably less than a well-targeted educational campaign); but as law it is a non-entity.
Sound law?
Of course, one cannot expect private members to draft sound
