Imperial Acts Application Act 1984

The Act has a diffuse but important reach. Primary users are the courts and legal practitioners who must determine whether a particular Imperial rule still forms part of Queensland law. Because s 7 effects a wholesale termination subject only to the Schedules, any argument that relies on an unrepealed English statute passed before 1829 must now begin with an examination of this Act.

Insurance companies and brokers operating in Queensland are directly affected by Part 3. Life insurers must ensure that every policy identifies the persons interested and that the sum insured does not exceed the value of the insurable interest (s 8). Marine underwriters must refuse policies that are, on their face, wagering contracts (s 9) and must issue formal policies containing the five mandatory particulars (ss 10–11). Failure to comply renders the contract unenforceable in court.

Reinsurers, loss adjusters and litigation funders also fall within the Act’s practical scope. A funder who takes an assignment of a marine insurance claim must still satisfy the insurable-interest rules that applied to the original assured. Commercial parties entering contracts that reference “Imperial” or “English” statutes listed in Schedule 3 must read those references as pointing to the Queensland substitutes.

Public authorities are bound (s 2). Although the Act is rarely invoked in day-to-day government administration, any Crown entity that relies on an ancient Imperial power (for example, in relation to escheat or royal fish) must confirm that the relevant Imperial Act remains preserved in Schedule 1.

Legal academics and law-reform bodies study the statute as a model of how a jurisdiction can sever its colonial legal umbilical cord without creating a vacuum. Law students encounter it in courses on legal history and statutory interpretation.

Finally, any person contemplating an insurance policy that lacks an obvious insurable interest—whether a wager on a celebrity’s longevity or a speculative cargo policy—is affected. The Act renders such arrangements void or unenforceable, thereby protecting the integrity of the insurance pool.

The Act creates several interlocking duties. Under s 8(1)–(2), a person proposing insurance is under a duty to possess an insurable interest at the time the policy is effected and to identify the interested parties in the policy document. The correlative right of the insurer is to refuse payment beyond the value of that interest (s 8(3)). The exemption for contracts of indemnity against loss by fire or other events preserves the ordinary right of subrogation.

For marine insurance, s 9(1) imposes a duty on both assured and insurer not to enter wagering contracts. The assured has a right to effect a policy “without benefit of salvage” only where salvage is factually impossible (s 9(3)). Section 10(1) places a duty on the assured to obtain a formal policy before litigation; the insurer’s corresponding right is to resist any action brought on an oral or informal contract.

Section 11 creates a duty of specification: the marine policy must contain the five listed elements. Failure is not expressed to render the policy void, but s 10 makes the contract inadmissible in evidence, which is a de facto bar to enforcement.

Section 14 confers a right of construction: where another Queensland statute refers to an Imperial Act listed in Schedule 3, the reader is entitled (and required) to substitute the Queensland counterpart. This prevents obsolete cross-references from frustrating legislative intent.

The Crown’s position is clarified by s 2: it enjoys the benefits and bears the burdens of the Act to the full extent of parliamentary power. Private parties gain the right to rely on the termination effected by s 7; they need not comb through centuries of English statute books unless the Schedules expressly preserve the provision.

The Act is not a criminal statute. It contains no offence-creating provisions or monetary penalties. Enforcement occurs through civil litigation. A policy issued in breach of s 8 is unenforceable to the extent it exceeds the interest; a marine wagering contract is simply void (s 9(1)). A plaintiff who sues on a contract not embodied in a marine policy will have that contract ruled inadmissible (s 10(1)).

Courts enforce these rules by summary dismissal or by striking out inadmissible evidence. In practice, insurers plead the Act as a complete defence. Because the rules are cast as conditions of validity rather than prohibitions backed by fines, the sanction is loss of the bargain rather than punishment.

The Act’s enforcement is therefore indirect but powerful. An insurer that pays out on a wager policy risks being unable to recover the payment from reinsurers or, in extreme cases, facing arguments that the payment was voluntary and irrecoverable. Conversely, an assured who cannot produce a compliant policy loses the ability to prove the contract in court.

The Act sits at the intersection of reception, interpretation and insurance statutes. Its most important relationship is with the Australian Courts Act 1828 (Imp), which it uses as the temporal boundary for termination. By terminating Imperial enactments “in force in England at the time of the passing” of the 1828 Act, the 1984 statute draws a bright line that complements, rather than contradicts, the earlier Imperial reception rule.

Within Queensland, the Act interacts with the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth). The Commonwealth statute overlays its own disclosure and utmost-good-faith rules, but the Imperial Acts Application Act 1984 continues to govern the threshold question of insurable interest for life and marine policies. Section 8’s limitation on recovery to the value of the interest remains operative.

The Marine Insurance Act 1909 (Cth) is also relevant. Although that Act is based on the Marine Insurance Act 1906 (UK), Queensland’s requirement that the contract be embodied in a policy (s 10) and the mandatory content of that policy (s 11) fill gaps or supplement the Commonwealth scheme. Because s 10 is expressed to operate “subject to the provisions of any other Act”, a court would read the two statutes in harmony.

Schedule 3 operates as an interpretation aid for other Queensland statutes. For example, if an older Queensland Act refers to the Life Assurance Act 1774 (UK), s 14 directs the reader to the substitute rules now contained in s 8 of the 1984 Act.

The Act also interacts with the Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (Qld). References to “Imperial enactment” are construed in accordance with the definition in s 4 of the 1984 Act, which includes any Act passed by the Imperial Parliament.

Finally, the Constitution Act 1867 (Qld) supplies the legislative competence for the 1984 Act. Because the termination of Imperial law is a matter “peace, welfare and good government”, the statute is comfortably within State power. The binding of the Crown in all capacities (s 2) reflects the modern approach to Crown immunity seen in cases such as Bropho v Western Australia.

The text records two explicit amendments. Section 3 (Arrangement) was omitted by the Reprints Act 1992 on 30 May 1994 under s 36 of that Act. Section 12 was omitted by the Statute Law Revision Act 1994 (No. 24 of 1994). These changes are housekeeping rather than substantive. The 1994 revision simply removed a now-redundant table of provisions and an obsolete section, reflecting the legislature’s desire to keep the statute lean.

No major policy amendments have occurred since 1984. The Act has proved remarkably stable. This stability is deliberate: once the bulk of Imperial law is terminated and the insurance substitutes inserted, the statute’s work is largely done. Periodic law-reform reviews have examined whether further Imperial statutes should be added to Schedule 1 or 2, but none have been recommended. The insurance provisions in Part 3 have not required updating because they are now supplemented by the comprehensive Commonwealth regime, yet the foundational rules on insurable interest remain sound.

The absence of recent change is itself noteworthy. It signals that the 1984 settlement between colonial inheritance and local autonomy has endured.

Because the Act is primarily facilitative and terminative, it has generated few reported decisions. The leading controversy concerns the precise scope of the termination in s 7. Litigants have occasionally argued that a particular Imperial rule was preserved by “necessary intendment” under s 6 even though it does not appear in Schedule 2. Courts have tended to read the termination broadly, consistent with the Act’s evident purpose of clearing the statute book.

In insurance litigation, the marine policy formalities in ss 10 and 11 have been invoked to strike out claims based on cover notes or emails. Judges have upheld the statutory language strictly, noting that the provisions replicate long-standing Imperial requirements that were deliberately re-enacted in Queensland form.

A more subtle controversy surrounds the interaction with the common law of insurable interest. Some commentators argue that s 8 codifies only the statutory branch of the rule and that the common-law requirement of interest at the time of loss (derived from cases such as Lucena v Craufurd) continues to apply. The Act itself is silent on this point; it neither confirms nor displaces the common-law doctrine. Practitioners therefore still plead both statutory and common-law insurable interest.

Another live issue is the meaning of “interest” in s 8. The Act does not define it, leaving courts to draw on the extensive English case law that predates 1828. This has produced occasional disputes about whether a parent has an insurable interest in a child’s life or whether a creditor’s interest in a debtor’s life is limited to the amount of the debt.

No constitutional challenge to the Act has succeeded. Arguments that wholesale termination of Imperial law offends the reception doctrine have been rejected on the basis that the Queensland Parliament possesses plenary power to declare what law applies within its territory.

Most practitioners assume that once an Imperial Act is terminated under s 7 it is gone forever. In fact, the common-law principles that those statutes once codified may still survive as part of the received common law. The statute prunes the statutory branch but does not automatically abolish parallel common-law rules.

Another trap is the double drafting in ss 8–11. The narrative paragraphs and the numbered subsections are not always identical in wording. Courts have treated the numbered versions as the authoritative ones, yet the narrative text remains on the statute book and can confuse overseas counsel who expect a single statement of the rule.

Section 10’s opening words—“Subject to the provisions of any other Act”—are easily overlooked. In practice this subordinates the marine-policy requirement to later Commonwealth legislation such as the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth), which permits certain claims to proceed on the basis of unsigned proposal forms. Failing to check for overriding Commonwealth law can lead to incorrect advice.

The Schedules are critical but are not reproduced in every consolidated version. Relying on the body of the Act alone can produce error; a practitioner must always consult the latest Schedules to know what is preserved, what is unaffected, and what references are redirected.

Finally, the Act binds the Crown “so far as the legislative power of Parliament permits”. This qualification, though standard, opens a narrow window for arguments that certain Imperial prerogatives remain untouched. In practice the window has never been successfully exploited, yet it remains a theoretical gotcha for Crown solicitors.

Compliance begins with a simple checklist. When advising on any pre-1829 English statute, open the Imperial Acts Application Act 1984 and ask three questions: (1) Is it listed in Schedule 1? If yes, it continues in force. (2) Is it listed in Schedule 2 or preserved by necessary intendment under s 6? If yes, the Act does not touch it. (3) If neither, s 7 has terminated its application and any substitute rule in Part 3 or another Queensland statute must be used instead.

For insurance policies, draft with s 8 firmly in mind. Insert an express statement of the nature and extent of the insurable interest and name the interested parties. For marine insurance, prepare a formal policy document that recites the five mandatory particulars in s 11. Avoid any wording that could be construed as “interest or no interest”. If the risk truly admits of no salvage, record that fact contemporaneously.

Retain the executed policy. Section 10 is unforgiving: without it the contract is inadmissible. Electronic policies are acceptable provided they satisfy the ordinary rules of execution under the Electronic Transactions (Queensland) Act 2001.

When drafting or reviewing other Queensland legislation that refers to an old Imperial Act, check Schedule 3. If the Imperial Act appears in column 1, replace the reference with the Queensland substitute in column 2.

Corporate counsel should maintain an internal register of preserved Imperial enactments that affect their industry. For example, companies dealing with historic land titles may need to know which Schedule 1 statutes still govern feudal incidents or ancient lights.

Finally, train claims handlers to ask the threshold question: “Does the claimant have an insurable interest and can we prove it?” Payment without that inquiry risks subsequent recovery actions by reinsurers or shareholders.

By treating the Act as both a termination order and a set of substitute rules, compliance is straightforward. The statute rewards the diligent practitioner who checks the Schedules and reads Part 3 literally; it punishes those who assume that centuries of English law still drift quietly in the background of Queensland jurisprudence.