Researching Legislation

Commencement of Acts

Once an Act has been passed and receives Royal Assent, this does not mean the Act automatically becomes law. An Act has a provision (usually section 2) which sets out the commencement date of the whole Act, or the commencement dates for specific sections of an Act.

There are three ways in which an Act (or specific sections of an Act) can commence into law:

1. An Act commences into law once it has received the Royal Assent.
2. An Act (or specific sections of an Act) commences into law on a set date.
3. An Act (or specific sections of an Act) commences into law on a date to be proclaimed.

Act commences on a set date

Example:

Treaty Authority and Other Treaty Elements Act 2022 (Vic)

The Treaty Authority and Other Treaty Elements Act 2022 (Vic) received the Royal Assent on the 23 August 2022. The image below shows Section 2 of the Act which states this Act comes into operation on the day after the day on which it receives Royal Assent.

This means that the Act became law on 24 August 2022.

Specific sections of an Act commence on a set date or a date to be proclaimed

Example:

Accident Compensation and Transport Accident Acts (Amendment) 2003 (Vic)

The Accident Compensation and Transport Accident Acts (Amendment) 2003 (Vic) received Royal Assent on 2 December 2003. The image below shows under Section 2(1) of the Act these provisions came into operation on 3 December 2003. While Section 2(4) of the Act states that Parts 3 and 5 come into operation on a date to be proclaimed.

When a commencement section of an Act states that a provision comes into operation on a day to be proclaimed, a proclamation notice must be published in a Victorian Government Gazette. The image below shows that for Accident Compensation and Transport Accident Acts (Amendment) 2003 (Vic), a notice was published in Victoria Government Gazette G35 (26 August 2004, p. 2363) that Parts 3 and 5 commenced on 1 September 2004.

Locating Victoria Government Gazettes

In Victoria, assent notices and proclamation details are published in the Victoria Government Gazette. This official website contains publications for the current year under Recent Gazettes. Publications from 1998 to the present day can be looked up in the Gazette Archives. Issues of the Victoria Government Gazette published before 1998 can be accessed via the State Library of Victoria. 

Using Lawlex Premium to find commencement information of Acts

1. Go to the Lawlex Premium database homepage via the Library A-Z Databases.
2. Type the title of the Act in the search box. This example searches for a Principal Act, the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). Do not include the date. Use the dropdown box to select the jurisdiction – do not include it in the search box. Press Search.
   
    
3. Select the Act from the results list:
   
    
4. This takes you to the Core Document Homepage for the Act. From here, select View Commencement Information.
   

    

5. The View Commencement Information table displays the Assent date of the Act and the commencement date of the Act. If the date of commencement was published in a Victorian Government Gazette the Gazette number will be displayed as well.
   
    
6. The above table displays that the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) was Assented to 30/09/1958. The Act commenced on 01/04/1959, and a proclamation notice was published in the Victorian Government Gazette GG. 18/3/59 p. 892. If you need to research when a specific section commenced, select the View history of amendments to this title.
   
    
7. Note the Legend at the top of the table:
   
    
8. Scroll to the Part, section or schedule you are researching. This example looks at section 633 of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic).
   
   
   This table shows that section 633 was amended by section 10 of amending Act 2018/5. The link to 2018/5 displays that the name of the amending Act is the Justice Legislation Amendment (Victims) Act 2018. The commenced column displays that this amendment came into force on 28/02/2018.
    
9. An alternative way to find commencement information is to select the Commencement Table from the Lawlex homepage.
   
    
10. This table provides commencement information for Acts and Regulations from 1979 to present. The Legend indicates how the Act/Regulation commenced.
    
     
11. Using the dropdown menus, select the Jurisdiction, Document Type and Year. This example searches for any Victorian Acts in the year 2018.