Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860

The Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict c 32) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is one of the Ecclesiastical Courts Acts 1787 to 1860.^[2] The Act is sometimes known as the "ECJA."

Section 1

This section was repealed by section 87 of, and Schedule 5 to, the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963.

Section 5

This section repealed the Brawling Act 1551. This section was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1875.

Section 6

This section provided that nothing contained hereinbefore in this Act was to be taken to repeal or alter the Brawling Act 1553, the Act of Uniformity 1558 or section 18 of the Toleration Act 1688. This section was repealed by section 1 of, and Part II of the Schedule to, the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1969.

Developments

In 1998, political campaigner Peter Tatchell was notably charged under Section 2 of the Act. He was charged for conducting "indecent behaviour in a church."^[3]

In 2002, the House of Lords' Select Committee on Religious Offences in England and Wales delivered their First Report. In Chapter 3 of this report, they examined the "Law as it stands," including looking at "Old statutes." This included the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860, where they revealed that "According to statistics made available by the Home Office, there were 60 prosecutions under this Act in the six years 1997-2002, with 21 convictions." ^[4]

In his evidence to the Committee, Grenville Cross, the Director of Public Prosecutions said that: "We use it sufficiently often or have used it in the past for it obviously to be the right offence to use and a redrafted Section 2 would probably be a (albeit infrequently used) valuable offence."^[4]

References

• Halsbury's Statutes,

External links

• The Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860, as amended, from Legislation.gov.uk.
• The Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860, as originally enacted, from Legislation.gov.uk.