Primary and secondary legislation
two forms of law in democracies
Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation, subordinate legislation or legislative instrument) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislative and executive branches of governments in representative democracies.
Primary legislation generally consists of statutes, also known as "acts", that set out broad principles and rules, but may delegate specific authority to actors within the executive branch to make more specific laws under the aegis of the principal act.
Those actors can then issue secondary legislation (often by order-in-council in parliamentary systems, or by regulatory agencies in presidential systems), creating legally enforceable regulations and the procedures for implementing them.
By jurisdiction
Australia
In Australian law, primary legislation includes acts of the Commonwealth Parliament and state or territory parliaments. Secondary legislation, formally called legislative instruments, are regulations made according to law by the executive or judiciary or other specified bodies which have the effect of law. Secondary legislation amounts to about half of Commonwealth law by volume. Although it is made by the executive, secondary legislation is still scrutinised by parliament and can be disallowed by a resolution of either house of parliament.
Canada
In Canadian law, primary legislation (also called statute law) consists of acts of the Parliament of Canada and the legislatures of the provinces. Secondary legislation (also called regulation) includes laws made by federal or provincial Order in Council by virtue of an empowering statute previously made by the parliament or legislature.
European Union
Each member state of the European Union (EU) has its own laws, but EU law takes primacy in certain circumstances.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q128693670. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Primary and secondary legislation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.