Primary legislation is law made by the legislative branch of government. This contrasts with secondary legislation, which is usually made by the executive branch. Secondary (or delegated) legislation must be authorised by primary legislation, and conform to boundaries it has laid down.
In the United Kingdom, and other Commonwealth nations, primary legislation takes the form of an Act of Parliament, and in the United States, it is (at federal level) an Act of Congress. In European Union law, the founding treaties are the main primary legislation.
Section 21(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998 contains a definition of "primary legislation".
Famous quotes containing the words primary and/or legislation:
“But the doctrine of the Farm is merely this, that every man ought to stand in primary relations to the work of the world, ought to do it himself, and not to suffer the accident of his having a purse in his pocket, or his having been bred to some dishonorable and injurious craft, to sever him from those duties.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The conservative assumes sickness as a necessity, and his social frame is a hospital, his total legislation is for the present distress, a universe in slippers and flannels, with bib and papspoon, swallowing pills and herb-tea.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)