Generalia specialibus non derogant

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A Latinism that dates back at least to 1884, if not necessarily all the way to Ovid, Caesar and Virgil, the canon of interpretation “generalia specialibus non derogant” holds that a later, but more general, statutory provision does not override an earlier, more specific one, unless the later one goes out of its way to say so. The Earl of Selbourne LC, in Seward v The Vera Cruz (1884) 10AC 59 put it this way:

“Now if anything be certain it is this, that where there are general words in a later Act capable of reasonable and sensible application without extending them to subjects specially dealt with by earlier legislation, you are not to hold that earlier legislation indirectly repealed, altered, or derogated from merely by force of such general words, without any evidence of a particular intention to do so.”

Lawmakers — and contractual counterparties updating relationship contracts — should be explicit if they intend to squish an earlier agreement.

See also

• Statutory interpretation
• Contractual interpretation
• Ejusdem generis
• Noscitur a sociis
• Generalia specialibus non derogant
• Fair, large and liberal
• And the JC’s own short-hand to the lot of them: non mentula esse