DESUETUDE

desuetude  (des-w<<schwa>>-t[y]ood).1.  Lack  of  use;  obsolescence  through  disuse.  2.  The

doctrine holding that if a statute or treaty is left unenforced long enough, the courts will no longer

regard it as having any legal effect even though it has not been repealed. [Cases: Statutes    173.

C.J.S. Statutes § 292.]

“[T]he  doctrine  of  desuetude  has  had  in  all  legal  systems  a  very  limited  and  cautious

application. For the anachronistic statute a better remedy may be found through reinterpretation in

the light of new conditions; as Gray remarks with some irony. ‘It is not as speedy or as simple a

process to interpret a statute out of existence as to repeal it, but with time and patient skill it can

often be done.’ ” Lon L. Fuller, Anatomy of the Law 38 (1968) (quoting John Chipman Gray, The

Nature and Sources of Law 192 (1921)).

“There is  no  doctrine  of  desuetude  in  English  law,  so  a  statute  never  ceases to  be  in  force

merely because it is obsolete. Normally there must be an express repeal, but the whole or part of

an enactment may be impliedly repealed by a later statute.” Rupert Cross, Statutory Interpretation

3 (1976).

DE SUPERONERATIONE PASTURAE

de    superoneratione    pasturae    (dee    soo-p<<schwa>>-roh-n<<schwa>>-ray-shee-oh-nee

pas-ty<<schwa>>-ree),  n.[Law  Latin  “of  surcharge  of  pasture”]  Hist.  A  judicial  writ  against  a

person who was initially brought into county court for putting too many cattle on pasture, and later

was impleaded in the same court on the same charge, and the cause was removed to the superior

court at Westminster. [Blacks Law 8th]