What is "statute book"

Statute \Stat"ute\ (-[-u]t), n. [F. statut, LL. statutum, from L. statutus, p. p. of statuere to set, station, ordain, fr. status position, station, fr. stare, statum, to stand. See Stand, and cf. Constitute, Destitute.]

1. An act of the legislature of a state or country, declaring, commanding, or prohibiting something; a positive law; the written will of the legislature expressed with all the requisite forms of legislation; -- used in distinction from common law. See Common law, under Common, a.
   --Bouvier.

   Note: Statute is commonly applied to the acts of a legislative body consisting of representatives. In monarchies, the laws of the sovereign are called edicts, decrees, ordinances, rescripts, etc. In works on international law and in the Roman law, the term is used as embracing all laws imposed by competent authority. Statutes in this sense are divided into statutes real, statutes personal, and statutes mixed; statutes real applying to immovables; statutes personal to movables; and statutes mixed to both classes of property.

2. An act of a corporation or of its founder, intended as a permanent rule or law; as, the statutes of a university.

3. An assemblage of farming servants (held possibly by statute) for the purpose of being hired; -- called also statute fair. [Eng.] Cf. 3d Mop, 2.
   --Halliwell.

   Statute book, a record of laws or legislative acts.
   --Blackstone.

   Statute cap, a kind of woolen cap; -- so called because enjoined to be worn by a statute, dated in 1571, in behalf of the trade of cappers. [Obs.]
   --Halliwell.

   Statute fair. See Statute, n., 3, above.

   Statute labor, a definite amount of labor required for the public service in making roads, bridges, etc., as in certain English colonies.

   Statute merchant (Eng. Law), a bond of record pursuant to the stat. 13 Edw. I., acknowledged in form prescribed, on which, if not paid at the day, an execution might be awarded against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor, and the obligee might hold the lands until out of the rents and profits of them the debt was satisfied; -- called also a pocket judgment. It is now fallen into disuse.
   --Tomlins.
   --Bouvier.

   Statute mile. See under Mile.

   Statute of limitations (Law), a statute assigning a certain time, after which rights can not be enforced by action.

   Statute staple, a bond of record acknowledged before the mayor of the staple, by virtue of which the creditor may, on nonpayment, forthwith have execution against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor, as in the statute merchant. It is now disused.
   --Blackstone.

   Syn: Act; regulation; edict; decree. See Law.

n. (context informal legal English) All the statutes and laws of a given jurisdiction, whether or not listed in an actual book.

n. a record of the whole body of legislation in a given jurisdiction

The Statute Book is "the surviving body of enacted legislation published by authority" in "a number of publications".

In England at the end of 1948, the Statute Book printed by authority consisted of the twenty-four volumes of The Statutes: Second Revised Edition and the thirty-three volumes of Public General Acts published annually since 1920, making in all fifty-seven volumes.

O. Hood Phillips said that there is no Statute Book. Baker said that "the statute book" was no closer to being a historical entity than "the" register of writs was.

In autumn 1947, the Statute Law Committee was given terms of reference "to consider the steps necessary to bring the Statute Book up to date by consolidation, revision, and otherwise".