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assed into a law; a law; a decree; a statute; a prescribed requirement; as, a prohibitory enactment; a social enactment.

The enacting or passing of a law a second time; the renewal of a law.

A form or draft of a law, presented to a legislature for enactment; a proposed or projected law.

The act or process of constituting; the action of enacting, establishing, or appointing; enactment; establishment; formation.

Formed into a body by legal enactment; united in an association, and endowed by law with the rights and liabilities of an individual; incorporated; as, a corporate town.

Bad legislation; the enactment of bad laws. Cockeram.

Enactment; resolution. [Obs.] Shak.

ence of a subsequent act; retrospective. Ex post facto law, a law which operates by after enactment. The phrase is popularly applied to any law, civil or criminal, which is enacted with a retrospective effect, and with intention to produce that effect; but in its true application, as employed in American law, it relate…

e faculty, or authority, privilege, license, or the like hence, optional; as, facultative enactments, or those which convey a faculty, or permission; the facultative referendum of Switzerland is one that is optional with the people and is necessary only when demanded by petition; facultative studies; -- opposed to obli…

The act or process of instituting; as: (a) Establishment; foundation; enactment; as, the institution of a school. The institution of God's law is described as being established by solemn injunction. Hooker.

-- deduced from the custom of merchants, and regulated by judicial decisions, as also by enactments of legislatures. -- Law of Charles (Physics), the law that the volume of a given mass of gas increases or decreases, by a definite fraction of its value for a given rise or fall of temperature; -- sometimes less correc…

The act of legislating; preparation and enactment of laws; the laws enacted. Pythagoras joined legislation to his philosophy. Lyttelton.

claimed in behalf of a State to nullify or make void, by its sovereign act or decree, an enactment of the general government which it deems unconstitutional.

rom drafts. Omnibus bill, a legislative bill which provides for a number of miscellaneous enactments or appropriations. [Parliamentary Cant, U.S.] -- Omnibus box, a large box in a theater, on a level with the stage and having communication with it. [Eng.] Thackeray.

vote; esp., the final affirmative action of the body upon a proposition; hence, adoption; enactment; as, the passage of the bill to its third reading was delayed. "The passage of the Stamp Act." D. Hosack. The final question was then put upon its passage. Cushing. In passage, in passing; cursorily. "These . . . have be…

Prescribed by express enactment or institution; settled by arbitrary appointment; said of laws. In laws, that which is natural bindeth universally; that which is positive, not so. Hooker.

ng things past; retroactive; as, a retrospective law. Inflicting death by a retrospective enactment. Macaulay.

ide for conduct or action; a governing direction for a specific purpose; an authoritative enactment; a regulation; a prescription; a precept; as, the rules of various societies; the rules governing a school; a rule of etiquette or propriety; the rules of cricket. We profess to have embraced a religion which contains th…

That quality which tends to secure results; effective power in an institution or enactment; security; validity; legal or moral force; logical conclusiveness; as, the strength of social or legal obligations; the strength of law; the strength of public opinion; strength of evidence; strength of argument.…

Beyond power; transcending authority; -- a phrase used frequently in relation to acts or enactments by corporations in excess of their chartered or statutory rights.