{"id":"qld:act-1984-070","name":"Imperial Acts Application Act 1984","slug":"imperial-acts-application-act-1984","collection":"act","jurisdiction":"qld","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":"70 of 1984","makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":104965,"registerId":"qld-act-1984-070-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-03","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"pt.1","sectionType":"part","heading":"Preliminary","content":"# Preliminary","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"sec.1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Short title and citation","content":"### sec.1 Short title and citation\n\nThis Act may be cited as the Imperial Acts Application Act 1984 .","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"sec.2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Act to bind Crown","content":"### sec.2 Act to bind Crown\n\nThis Act binds the Crown not only in right of the State but also, so far as the legislative power of Parliament permits, the Crown in all its other capacities.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"sec.3","sectionType":"section","heading":"Arrangement","content":"### sec.3 Arrangement\n\ns 3 om 30 May 1994 RA s 36","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"sec.4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Interpretation","content":"### sec.4 Interpretation\n\nIn this Act—\nImperial enactment includes any Act passed by the Imperial Parliament.","sortOrder":4},{"sectionNumber":"pt.2","sectionType":"part","heading":"Imperial enactments preserved or terminated","content":"# Imperial enactments preserved or terminated","sortOrder":5},{"sectionNumber":"sec.5","sectionType":"section","heading":"Preserved Imperial enactments","content":"### sec.5 Preserved Imperial enactments\n\nEach Imperial enactment specified in Schedule 1 shall, from the commencement of this Act, continue to have the same force and effect (if any) as it had in Queensland immediately prior to the commencement of this Act.","sortOrder":6},{"sectionNumber":"sec.6","sectionType":"section","heading":"Imperial enactments not affected","content":"### sec.6 Imperial enactments not affected\n\nNothing in this Act affects any Imperial enactment specified in Schedule 2 or any other Imperial enactment which independently of the provisions of the Imperial Act 9 George 4 Chapter 83 ( Australian Courts Act 1828 ) is made applicable to Queensland by express words or necessary intendment of any Imperial enactment.","sortOrder":7},{"sectionNumber":"sec.7","sectionType":"section","heading":"Termination of application of Imperial enactments","content":"### sec.7 Termination of application of Imperial enactments\n\nSubject to this Act, the application in and for Queensland of all Imperial enactments (commencing with the Statute of Merton, 20 Henry 3 A.D. 1235–6) in force in England at the time of the passing of the Imperial Act 9 George 4 Chapter 83 , is terminated.","sortOrder":8},{"sectionNumber":"pt.3","sectionType":"part","heading":"Substitution of Queensland law for certain Imperial enactments","content":"# Substitution of Queensland law for certain Imperial enactments","sortOrder":9},{"sectionNumber":"sec.8","sectionType":"section","heading":"No insurance to be made by persons having no interest","content":"### sec.8 No insurance to be made by persons having no interest\n\nNo insurance shall be made by any person on the life of any person or on any other event whatsoever wherein the person for whose use or benefit or on whose account the policy is made has no interest, or by way of gaming or wagering.\nIt shall not be lawful to make any policy on the life of any person, or on any other event whatsoever, wherein the person effecting the policy has no interest, without inserting in that policy the names of the persons interested therein, or for whose use or benefit or on whose account that policy was made.\nIn all cases where there is an interest in the life or other event the subject of the insurance, no greater sum shall be recovered or received from the insurer than the amount or value of the interest.\nNothing in this section shall extend to insurance made by any person on ships or goods, or to contracts of indemnity against loss by fire or loss by other events whatsoever.\n(sec.8-ssec.1) No insurance shall be made by any person on the life of any person or on any other event whatsoever wherein the person for whose use or benefit or on whose account the policy is made has no interest, or by way of gaming or wagering.\n(sec.8-ssec.2) It shall not be lawful to make any policy on the life of any person, or on any other event whatsoever, wherein the person effecting the policy has no interest, without inserting in that policy the names of the persons interested therein, or for whose use or benefit or on whose account that policy was made.\n(sec.8-ssec.3) In all cases where there is an interest in the life or other event the subject of the insurance, no greater sum shall be recovered or received from the insurer than the amount or value of the interest.\n(sec.8-ssec.4) Nothing in this section shall extend to insurance made by any person on ships or goods, or to contracts of indemnity against loss by fire or loss by other events whatsoever.","sortOrder":10},{"sectionNumber":"sec.9","sectionType":"section","heading":"Avoidance of wagering or gaming contracts of marine insurance","content":"### sec.9 Avoidance of wagering or gaming contracts of marine insurance\n\nEvery contract of marine insurance by way of gaming or wagering is void.\nA contract of marine insurance is deemed to be a gaming or wagering contract—\nwhere the assured has no insurable interest, and the contract is entered into with no expectation of acquiring such an interest; or\nwhere the policy is made ‘interest or no interest’, or ‘without further proof of interest than the policy itself’, or ‘without benefit of salvage to the insurer’, or subject to any other like term.\nHowever, where there is no possibility of salvage, a policy may be effected without benefit of salvage to the insurer.\n(sec.9-ssec.1) Every contract of marine insurance by way of gaming or wagering is void.\n(sec.9-ssec.2) A contract of marine insurance is deemed to be a gaming or wagering contract— where the assured has no insurable interest, and the contract is entered into with no expectation of acquiring such an interest; or where the policy is made ‘interest or no interest’, or ‘without further proof of interest than the policy itself’, or ‘without benefit of salvage to the insurer’, or subject to any other like term.\n(sec.9-ssec.3) However, where there is no possibility of salvage, a policy may be effected without benefit of salvage to the insurer.\n- (a) where the assured has no insurable interest, and the contract is entered into with no expectation of acquiring such an interest; or\n- (b) where the policy is made ‘interest or no interest’, or ‘without further proof of interest than the policy itself’, or ‘without benefit of salvage to the insurer’, or subject to any other like term.","sortOrder":11},{"sectionNumber":"sec.10","sectionType":"section","heading":"Contracts of marine insurance must be embodied in policy","content":"### sec.10 Contracts of marine insurance must be embodied in policy\n\nSubject to the provisions of any other Act, a contract of marine insurance is inadmissible in evidence in an action for the recovery of a loss under the contract unless it is embodied in a marine policy in accordance with this Part.\nThe policy may be executed and issued either at the time when the contract is concluded or afterwards.\n(sec.10-ssec.1) Subject to the provisions of any other Act, a contract of marine insurance is inadmissible in evidence in an action for the recovery of a loss under the contract unless it is embodied in a marine policy in accordance with this Part.\n(sec.10-ssec.2) The policy may be executed and issued either at the time when the contract is concluded or afterwards.","sortOrder":12},{"sectionNumber":"sec.11","sectionType":"section","heading":"What policy of marine insurance must specify","content":"### sec.11 What policy of marine insurance must specify\n\nA marine policy must specify—\nthe name of the assured, or of some person who effects the insurance on the assured’s behalf; and\nthe subject-matter insured and the risk insured against; and\nthe voyage, or period of time, or both as the case may be, covered by the insurance; and\nthe sum or sums insured; and\nthe name or names of the insurers.\n- (a) the name of the assured, or of some person who effects the insurance on the assured’s behalf; and\n- (b) the subject-matter insured and the risk insured against; and\n- (c) the voyage, or period of time, or both as the case may be, covered by the insurance; and\n- (d) the sum or sums insured; and\n- (e) the name or names of the insurers.","sortOrder":13},{"sectionNumber":"sec.12","sectionType":"section","heading":null,"content":"### Section sec.12\n\ns 12 om 1994 No. 24 s 3 (1) sch","sortOrder":14},{"sectionNumber":"sec.14","sectionType":"section","heading":"References to Imperial enactments","content":"### sec.14 References to Imperial enactments\n\nA reference in any Act to an Imperial enactment specified in Schedule 3 , column 1 shall, where the case permits and unless a contrary intention appears, be construed as a reference to the enactment specified in column 2 opposite the Imperial enactment specified.","sortOrder":15}],"analysis":{"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":5,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act is a consolidating and clarifying measure; it does not expand the scope of Imperial enactments but rather terminates most and preserves some. Its original intent was to determine the application of Imperial laws in Queensland, and this version does not deviate from that."},"complexity_factors":["Reliance on schedules (Schedule 1, 2, 3) which are not shown in the text provided","Conditional termination of Imperial enactments (section 7 with exceptions in section 6)","Detailed insurance provisions with multiple subsections (sections 8-11)","Use of historical references (e.g., Statute of Merton, 1235-6, and 9 George 4 Chapter 83)","Definitions that are minimal but require cross-referencing"],"plain_english_summary":"This Queensland law tidies up which old British (Imperial) laws still apply in Queensland. It lists in Schedule 1 which Imperial laws remain in force, and says that all other Imperial laws passed before 1828 (starting from 1235) no longer have effect in Queensland. It also replaces some old Imperial rules on insurance with new Queensland rules (prohibiting gambling-style insurance policies and requiring marine insurance to be in a proper policy document). The Act applies to the Crown (government) as well. In short, it cleans up legal history so courts and citizens know which centuries-old British statutes still matter and which don't."},"summary":{"complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"The Act appears to have delivered on its original intent — a systematic rationalisation of Imperial laws applying in Queensland. The partial omission of section 12 (removed in 1994) and section 3 represent minor amendments rather than any fundamental shift in purpose. The Act remains a focused housekeeping and codification instrument, operating within its originally stated scope of preserving, terminating, and substituting Imperial enactments as they applied to Queensland."},"complexity_factors":["Requires understanding of historical constitutional context — the relationship between Imperial (British) law and Australian state law following colonisation","References multiple external documents (Schedules 1, 2, and 3) that are not reproduced in the text provided, making the full effect of the Act impossible to assess from the excerpt alone","Relies on archaic legal concepts such as 'insurable interest', 'salvage', and wagering contracts that require specialist knowledge to interpret","The territorial and temporal scope of the Act (covering laws dating back to 1235) creates interpretive complexity around what is and isn't terminated","The interaction between preserved, terminated, and 'untouched' Imperial enactments creates a three-tier classification system that requires careful navigation","Marine insurance provisions use technical industry and legal terminology that laypeople would find opaque","References to specific Imperial Acts by their old regnal citation format (e.g., '9 George 4 Chapter 83') requires legal-historical knowledge to decode"],"plain_english_summary":"## Imperial Acts Application Act 1984 (Queensland)\n\n### What is this law about?\n\nThis Queensland law is essentially a **housekeeping statute** — it sorts out which old British (Imperial) laws still apply in Queensland, which ones are formally switched off, and where Queensland has replaced British laws with its own local versions.\n\nWhen Australia was colonised, British laws automatically applied here. Over time, Queensland developed its own Parliament and laws — but there was never a clean break that formally sorted out which old British laws remained valid. This Act does that clean-up job.\n\n### What does it actually do?\n\n**1. Keeps some British laws alive (Schedule 1)**\nCertain old British laws (listed in a Schedule) are formally preserved and continue to apply in Queensland. These are typically foundational legal principles — things like the Magna Carta — that Queensland has chosen to keep.\n\n**2. Kills off most old British laws**\nAll British laws that were in force in England at the time of the *Australian Courts Act 1828* — going all the way back to the *Statute of Merton in 1235* — are formally terminated in Queensland, *unless* they're specifically preserved.\n\n**3. Leaves some British laws untouched (Schedule 2)**\nSome British laws are simply left alone — this Act doesn't affect them one way or another, particularly those that were directly applied to Queensland by specific British legislation.\n\n**4. Replaces some British laws with Queensland versions (Part 3)**\nFor certain areas of law, Queensland substitutes its own local rules instead of relying on old British statutes. The main examples in this Act cover:\n- **Insurance law**: You can't take out an insurance policy (including life insurance) on something you have no real financial interest in — this prevents gambling-style insurance schemes. You also can't recover more than your actual loss.\n- **Marine (shipping) insurance**: Gambling-style shipping insurance contracts are void (legally worthless). Marine insurance must be documented in a formal written policy to be enforceable in court.\n\n**5. Updates cross-references (Schedule 3)**\nWhere other Queensland laws reference old British Acts, this Act says those references should be read as pointing to the relevant Queensland replacement law instead.\n\n### Who does this affect?\n\n- **Ordinary Queenslanders** indirectly — the preserved British laws include fundamental rights protections (like those in Magna Carta) that underpin the Queensland legal system.\n- **Insurance industry participants** — the insurance provisions directly regulate what kinds of policies are valid and enforceable.\n- **Lawyers and courts** — this Act clarifies which laws are actually in force, resolving potential uncertainty about old British statutes.\n- **The Queensland Government** — the Act explicitly binds the Crown (meaning the government must follow it too).\n\n### Why does it matter?\n\nWithout an Act like this, there could be genuine legal uncertainty about whether 800-year-old British statutes still technically apply in Queensland. This law provides legal clarity — it draws a line in the sand and establishes a clean, coherent foundation for Queensland law."},"issue_detection":{"absurdities":[{"type":"circular_definition","section":"sec.4","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 4 defines 'Imperial enactment' as including 'any Act passed by the Imperial Parliament'. The definition uses the word 'Imperial' to define 'Imperial enactment' without defining what 'Imperial Parliament' means. The Act provides no further definition of 'Imperial Parliament', meaning the definition is essentially self-referential and unhelpfully circular. A reader must already know what 'Imperial' means to understand the definition, rendering it substantively empty.","confidence":0.72,"description":"Circular and near-tautological definition of 'Imperial enactment'"},{"type":"retroactive_impossibility","section":"sec.7","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 7 terminates the application of all Imperial enactments 'commencing with the Statute of Merton, 20 Henry 3 A.D. 1235-6'. While this operates prospectively from commencement of the 1984 Act, it implicitly acknowledges these enactments were previously in force in Queensland. No savings provision appears in section 7 itself (only the general 'subject to this Act' qualifier) to address rights, obligations, or legal relationships that were constituted under those terminated enactments over the preceding 750 years. The interaction between termination and pre-existing vested rights is left unaddressed in the operative provision.","confidence":0.61,"description":"Termination of enactments dating back to 1235 creates retroactive impossibility regarding intervening legal acts"},{"type":"other","section":"sec.8","severity":"high","reasoning":"Section 8 sets out four substantive paragraphs and then immediately repeats them verbatim as subsections (1) through (4). The section thus contains two complete and identical copies of its operative text. This creates a genuine drafting absurdity: it is unclear which version is operative, whether the unnumbered paragraphs and numbered subsections have different legal status, and whether any court would treat them as separate provisions capable of separate application or as a single provision stated twice. The duplication serves no discernible legislative purpose and creates interpretive confusion.","confidence":0.95,"description":"Entire text of section 8 is duplicated verbatim within the same section"},{"type":"other","section":"sec.9","severity":"high","reasoning":"Section 9 exhibits the same structural absurdity as section 8: the substantive text appears in full, then is repeated as numbered subsections. Additionally, the content of subsection (2) is then reproduced a third time as lettered paragraphs (a) and (b). This means portions of section 9 appear in three distinct formatting layers within the same provision, creating acute uncertainty about which version is authoritative and whether the triplication creates separate, cumulative operative provisions.","confidence":0.95,"description":"Entire text of section 9 is duplicated verbatim, and subsection (2) is further repeated as lettered paragraphs"},{"type":"other","section":"sec.8-ssec.4","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Section 8(1) prohibits insurance on 'any other event whatsoever' where the insured has no interest. Section 8(4) then exempts 'contracts of indemnity against loss by fire or loss by other events whatsoever'. The use of 'other events whatsoever' in both the prohibition and the exception means the exception is potentially co-extensive with the prohibition, as 'other events whatsoever' in subsection (4) could be read to encompass the same universe of events covered by the prohibition in subsection (1). The provision is internally self-defeating in its scope.","confidence":0.68,"description":"Exception for ships, goods, fire and 'other events whatsoever' effectively swallows the general rule in section 8"},{"type":"other","section":"sec.3","severity":"low","reasoning":"Section 3 as it appears in the Act contains only the notation 's 3 om 30 May 1994 RA s 36', indicating it was omitted. The section therefore exists in the published Act solely to announce that it no longer exists. While this is a common feature of Queensland's Reprint Act methodology, it creates a mild logical absurdity where a provision's only content is the record of its own deletion, meaning the section simultaneously does and does not exist as operative law.","confidence":0.8,"description":"Section 3 (Arrangement) exists as a provision solely to record its own omission"},{"type":"other","section":"sec.10 and sec.11","severity":"medium","reasoning":"Sections 10 and 11 repeat the same pattern as sections 8 and 9: the substantive text is set out once in unnumbered form and then again in numbered subsection form (section 10) or lettered paragraph form (section 11). While less egregious than sections 8-9 (no triple repetition), the structural duplication throughout Part 3 suggests a systemic drafting or formatting error that creates genuine interpretive uncertainty about which textual layer is operative.","confidence":0.9,"description":"Sections 10 and 11 also exhibit verbatim duplication of subsections"}],"contradictions":[{"severity":"low","section_a":"sec.5","section_b":"sec.7","confidence":0.55,"description":"Section 5 preserves Schedule 1 Imperial enactments while section 7 purports to terminate all Imperial enactments, creating an apparent conflict requiring the reader to cross-reference schedules to resolve what survives"},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"sec.6","section_b":"sec.7","confidence":0.65,"description":"Section 7 terminates all Imperial enactments subject to 'this Act', while section 6 preserves Schedule 2 enactments and those applicable by 'express words or necessary intendment' independently of the Australian Courts Act 1828. The scope of the carve-out in section 6 (enactments applicable independently of 9 George 4 c.83) is potentially broader than what section 7 terminates (enactments 'in force in England at the time of passing' of that same Act), creating an unresolved tension about which provision governs enactments that fall into both categories."},{"severity":"high","section_a":"sec.8-ssec.1","section_b":"sec.8-ssec.2","confidence":0.78,"description":"Section 8(1) absolutely prohibits making any insurance policy where the beneficiary has no interest. Section 8(2) then appears to contemplate and regulate (rather than prohibit) a policy where the person effecting the policy has no interest, requiring only insertion of names of interested persons. Subsection (1) targets the beneficiary's lack of interest while subsection (2) targets the policy-effector's lack of interest, and subsection (2) implies such a policy is permissible with proper disclosure rather than void under subsection (1), creating an internal contradiction about whether no-interest policies are prohibited or merely subject to disclosure requirements."},{"severity":"high","section_a":"sec.9-ssec.1","section_b":"sec.9-ssec.3","confidence":0.88,"description":"Section 9(1) declares every contract of marine insurance by way of gaming or wagering void. Section 9(2)(b) deems a policy made 'without benefit of salvage to the insurer' to be a gaming or wagering contract (and therefore void under s9(1)). Section 9(3) then creates an exception allowing a policy 'without benefit of salvage to the insurer' where there is no possibility of salvage. This means section 9(3) authorises a policy that is simultaneously deemed void by the combined operation of sections 9(1) and 9(2)(b), creating a direct logical contradiction about the validity of such policies."},{"severity":"medium","section_a":"sec.8-ssec.1","section_b":"sec.9-ssec.2(a)","confidence":0.73,"description":"Section 8(1) prohibits all insurance (including marine) where the beneficiary has no interest. Section 9(2)(a) deems a marine insurance contract a gaming contract only where the assured has no insurable interest AND entered the contract with no expectation of acquiring such an interest. This introduces an intention-based qualification for marine insurance that does not exist in section 8's absolute prohibition, meaning marine insurance with no current interest but an expectation of acquiring one would escape section 9 but may still be caught by section 8, producing inconsistent treatment of the same conduct across two provisions of the same Part."}]},"kimi_summary":{"_metrics":{"source":"grok-batch-everything"},"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":6,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"Originally intended to clarify the reception of English law in the colony under the Australian Courts Act 1828, the Act has significantly broadened its scope by terminating the application of the vast bulk of Imperial enactments in Queensland while simultaneously substituting modern statutory rules (especially detailed marine and life insurance provisions in Part 3). This transforms the legislation from a reception statute into an active reform and pruning instrument."},"complexity_factors":["Heavy reliance on historical Imperial enactments dating from the Statute of Merton (20 Henry 3, A.D. 1235–6)","Multiple cross-references to unprovided Schedules 1, 2 and 3 and to the Imperial Act 9 George 4 Chapter 83 (Australian Courts Act 1828)","Detailed substitution provisions in Part 3 (ss 8–11) that restate and adapt marine insurance rules with layered exceptions and conditions","Repetition of substantive rules in both narrative and subsection formats within ss 8, 9, 10 and 11","Omitted sections (s 3, s 12) and amendments noted in the text indicating ongoing legislative maintenance"],"plain_english_summary":"**The Imperial Acts Application Act 1984** cleans up which old British (Imperial) laws from the 13th century onward still apply in Queensland. It lists certain old laws that continue to have legal force (in Schedule 1), protects others that apply independently (Schedule 2), and ends the automatic application of almost all others that were in force in England when the Australian Courts Act 1828 was passed. \n\nThe Act then replaces some of those old rules with clear Queensland ones, mainly around insurance. You cannot insure someone's life or an event if you have no real financial stake in it (no gambling via insurance policies). Marine insurance contracts that are basically bets are void, must be written in a formal policy, and that policy must spell out key details like who is insured, what is covered, the time or voyage, the amount, and the insurers. \n\nIt matters because it removes legal uncertainty from centuries-old English statutes, prevents people from profiting on losses they have no connection to, and makes insurance rules straightforward for everyday use in Queensland."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/imperial-acts-application-act-1984","history":"/api/acts/imperial-acts-application-act-1984/history","analysis":"/api/acts/imperial-acts-application-act-1984/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/imperial-acts-application-act-1984/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/imperial-acts-application-act-1984/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/imperial-acts-application-act-1984/documents"}}