Title 1, Title 1

The following rules apply in this code: (1) The present tense includes the future as well as the present. (2) Words used in the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter. (3) The singular includes the plural and the plural the singular.

Words and phrases used in the statutes of Montana are construed according to the context and the approved usage of the language, but technical words and phrases and such others as have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in law or are defined in chapter 1, part 2, as amen…

Whenever the meaning of a word or phrase is defined in any part of this code, such definition is applicable to the same word or phrase wherever it occurs, except where a contrary intention plainly appears.

(1) A statute which refers to a title, chapter, part, section, or subsection number without further identification or attribution is presumed, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, to refer to a title, chapter, part, section, or subsection of the Montana Code Annotated.…

No law contained in any of the statutes of Montana is retroactive unless expressly so declared.

Any statute may be repealed at any time except when it is otherwise provided therein. Persons acting under any statute are deemed to have acted in contemplation of this power of repeal.

Nothing in this code affects any of the provisions of any special, local, or private statutes; but such statutes are recognized as continuing in force notwithstanding the provisions of this code, except so far as they have been repealed or affected by subsequent laws.

(1) As provided in subsection (3), a law enacted by the legislature that requires a local government unit to perform an activity or provide a service or facility that requires the direct expenditure of additional funds and that is not expected of local governments in the scope of…

(1) Any law enacted by the legislature that requires a school district to perform an activity or provide a service or facility and that will require the direct expenditure of additional funds must provide a specific means to finance the activity, service, or facility other than t…

(1) A bill may not be introduced enacting a new law or amending an existing law to require a local government unit to perform an activity or provide a service or facility that requires a direct expenditure of additional funds without a specific means to finance the activity, serv…

(1) A local government unit may use a remedy provided in subsection (2), (3), or (4) to prevent the application of a law enacted in violation of 1-2-112 or 1-2-113. (2) A local government may, with the consent of a state agency charged with the implementation of the law, arbitrat…

(1) A state agency may not take any action prohibited by subsection (2) without authorization in state law. (2) A state agency may not demand, bill, request, or otherwise require a local government to take any of the following actions or make the provision of a service to a local…

The right of individual privacy as referenced in the Montana constitution, the Montana Code Annotated, or the Administrative Rules of Montana does not create, and may not be construed as creating or recognizing, a right to abortion or to governmental funding of abortion.

(1) (a) Except as provided in subsection (1)(b), (1)(c), or (1)(d), every statute adopted after January 1, 1981, takes effect on the first day of October following its passage and approval unless a different time is prescribed in the enacting legislation. (b) Subject to subsectio…

Every joint resolution, unless a different time is prescribed therein, takes effect from its passage.

Where a section or a part of a statute is amended, it is not to be considered as having been repealed and reenacted in the amended form, but the portions which are not altered are to be considered as having been the law from the time when they were enacted, and the new provisions…

An act amending a section of an act repealed is void.

The repeal of any law creating a criminal offense does not constitute a bar to an indictment or information and the punishment of an act already committed in violation of the law so repealed unless the intention to bar such indictment or information and punishment is expressly de…

The repeal of any statute or part of a statute heretofore repealed must not be so construed as a declaration, express or by implication, that such statute or part of a statute has been in force at any time subsequent to such first repeal.

No act or part of an act repealed by another act of the legislature is revived by the repeal of the repealing act without express words reviving such repealed act or part of an act.

(1) Whenever a provision of law codified in the Montana Code Annotated is amended in such a way that it conflicts with a provision of law that was not codified in the Montana Code Annotated because such uncodified provision was redundant with such codified provision, the codified…

(1) The termination date of a statute may be revised by amending the session law for the initial legislation that provided for the termination date. There is no limit on the number of times that a termination date may be revised pursuant to this section. (2) In the event of confl…