Title 1, GENERAL PROVISIONS

When reference is made in this act to a provision contained in any other section or sections of the same title such provision shall be identified without specifying the number of the title in which it appears. When reference is made in this act to a provision contained in any sec…

(a) Method and scope of reference.--Acts of the General Assembly shall be referred to generically in this act as statutes and, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, such term when used in this act shall be deemed to be also a general reference to the provisions of this …

A section number shall not be re-used for a different subject, except in a bill to revise a part, article, chapter or other major subdivision of this act.

(a) Conformity with requirements of chapter.--Bills to amend this act shall be drafted to conform with the structure of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, as provided in this chapter. (b) Bureau to insure conformity of bills.--The Legislative Reference Bureau shall insure th…

(a) General rule.--The Legislative Reference Bureau may compile, edit, publish, print, supplement and revise or contract directly or through the Legislative Printing Clerk for the compilation, editing, publishing, printing, supplementation or revision of an official publication o…

(a) General rule.--In compiling and editing the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes and amendments thereto for publication, the bureau may: (1) Omit provisions of the amendatory acts which do not become a part of the structure of this act or which do not constitute part of the law…

The publication prepared by the bureau pursuant to this chapter shall constitute an official publication of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes and shall be legal evidence of the laws contained therein including the Constitution and laws incorporated therein pursuant to sectio…

Bills or joint resolutions introduced in the General Assembly proposing amendments to the Constitution of Pennsylvania shall be printed in such a manner as to indicate the words to be added to or deleted from the Constitution.

The manner in which proposed amendments to the Constitution of Pennsylvania shall be submitted to the qualified electors of the Commonwealth and the manner and effect of the certification of the returns of the election thereon shall, unless the General Assembly shall prescribe ot…

The officer of this Commonwealth to whom election returns are required by law to be certified shall, whenever a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Pennsylvania has been on the ballot at any election, certify the result of the election thereon to the Governor immediately up…

Whenever an amendment of an article or of a section of the Constitution of Pennsylvania is adopted without specifying an article or section number, or whenever any amendment is adopted bearing a number which conflicts with the number of another article or section of the Constitut…

The Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau, with the approval of the Department of Justice, shall prepare and promulgate an appropriate heading for any section of the Constitution of Pennsylvania which was heretofore or may hereafter be adopted without a section heading. An…

(a) Constitution of 1874.--The Constitution of Pennsylvania, as adopted by referendum of December 16, 1873, shall be known and may be cited as the "Constitution of 1874." (b) Constitution of 1968.--The Constitution of Pennsylvania, as amended by referenda of May 17, 1966, Novembe…

(a) Style and position of enacting clause.--All statutes shall begin in the following style: "The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hereby enacts as follows:". Such enacting clause shall be placed immediately after the preamble or the table of contents of the s…

(a) General rule.--No local or special bill to enact a local or special statute shall be passed by the General Assembly, unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall be published, once a week for four successive weeks, in not less than two newspapers of general circulat…

The Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau shall, as soon as any bill becomes a law, prepare the same for printing, cause the same to be printed immediately, and collate with and correct the proof sheets by the original rolls. He shall also have the statutes printed and ind…

(a) General rule.--The Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau shall, in printing amendatory statutes, cause to be printed the section or part of the statute only as reenacted. Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, in the section or part of the law reenacted,…

(a) Correction of errors.--Where any statute shall have been finally enacted and it shall be ascertained that such statute is technically defective in form, or contains misspelled words or typographical errors, or the plural or singular number, or the past, present or future tens…

The prothonotaries of the several counties shall file and keep in their offices, in such manner that they shall be accessible to the public during the office hours of the prothonotaries, advance copies of the statutes enacted at each session of the General Assembly, as such advan…

This part shall be known and may be cited as the "Statutory Construction Act of 1972."

(a) Direct application.-- (1) Except as otherwise provided in this part, the provisions of this part shall apply to the following unless the General Assembly or the agency adopting the document shall provide otherwise: (i) Every statute finally enacted on or after September 1, 19…

(a) English law.--The common law and such of the statutes of England as were in force in the Province of Pennsylvania on May 14, 1776 and which were properly adapted to the circumstances of the inhabitants of this Commonwealth shall be deemed to have been in force in this Commonw…

In all cases where a remedy is provided or a duty is enjoined or anything is directed to be done by any statute, the directions of the statute shall be strictly pursued, and no penalty shall be inflicted, or anything done agreeably to the common law, in such cases, further than s…

(a) General rule.--Except as otherwise provided in this chapter all statutes enacted finally at any regular session of the General Assembly not containing a specified effective date shall be effective on the date specified by that one of the following rules of construction in eff…

Appropriation statutes, or statutes having appropriation items enacted finally at any regular session of the General Assembly, shall be effective on the date specified by that one of the following rules of construction in effect on the date of final enactment of the statute: (1) …

Statutes affecting the budget of any political subdivision enacted finally at any regular session of the General Assembly shall be effective on the date specified by that one of the following rules of construction in effect on the date of final enactment of the statute: (1) Final…

(a) General rule.--Statutes enacted finally at a special or extraordinary session of the General Assembly shall, except as otherwise provided in this section, be governed as to the time when they shall be effective by the rules of construction specified in this chapter for statut…

In the construction of the statutes of this Commonwealth, the rules set forth in this chapter shall be observed, unless the application of such rules would result in a construction inconsistent with the manifest intent of the General Assembly.

The singular shall include the plural, and the plural, the singular. Words used in the masculine gender shall include the feminine and neuter. Words used in the past or present tense shall include the future.

(a) General rule.--Words and phrases shall be construed according to rules of grammar and according to their common and approved usage; but technical words and phrases and such others as have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning or are defined in this part, shall be constr…

The Roman numerals and the Arabic numerals shall be deemed parts of the English language.

(a) Joint authority.--Words in a statute conferring a joint authority upon three or more public officers or other persons shall be construed to confer authority upon a majority of such officers or persons. (b) Quorum.--A majority of any board or commission shall constitute a quor…

A statute requiring a bond or undertaking with sureties to be given by any person, shall be construed to permit in lieu thereof a bond of indemnity or surety bond for the amount of such bond or undertaking, given by any indemnity or surety company authorized to do business in thi…

Every mention of, or reference to any hour or time in any statute, shall be construed with reference to and in accordance with the mean solar time of the 75th meridian of longitude west of Greenwich, commonly called eastern standard time, unless a different standard is therein ex…

When any period of time is referred to in any statute, such period in all cases, except as otherwise provided in section 1909 of this title (relating to publication for successive weeks) and section 1910 of this title (relating to computation of months) shall be so computed as to…

Whenever in any statute providing for the publishing of notices, the phrase "successive weeks" is used, weeks shall be construed as calendar weeks. The publication upon any day of such weeks shall be sufficient publication for that week, but at least five days shall elapse betwee…

Whenever in any statute the lapse of a number of months after or before a certain day is required, such number of months shall be computed by counting the months from such day, excluding the calendar month in which such day occurs, and shall include the day of the month in the la…

(a) Object and scope of construction of statutes.--The object of all interpretation and construction of statutes is to ascertain and effectuate the intention of the General Assembly. Every statute shall be construed, if possible, to give effect to all its provisions. (b) Unambigu…

In ascertaining the intention of the General Assembly in the enactment of a statute the following presumptions, among others, may be used: (1) That the General Assembly does not intend a result that is absurd, impossible of execution or unreasonable. (2) That the General Assembly…

(a) Grammatical errors and transposition of words.--Grammatical errors shall not vitiate a statute. A transposition of words and clauses may be resorted to where a sentence is without meaning as it stands. (b) Use of punctuation in construction.--In no case shall the punctuation …

The title and preamble of a statute may be considered in the construction thereof. Provisos shall be construed to limit rather than to extend the operation of the clauses to which they refer. Exceptions expressed in a statute shall be construed to exclude all others. The headings…

The provisions of every statute shall be severable. If any provision of any statute or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the statute, and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affect…

No statute shall be construed to be retroactive unless clearly and manifestly so intended by the General Assembly.

Statutes uniform with those of other states shall be interpreted and construed to effect their general purpose to make uniform the laws of those states which enact them.

(a) Statutes in derogation of common law.--The rule that statutes in derogation of the common law are to be strictly construed, shall have no application to the statutes of this Commonwealth enacted finally after September 1, 1937. (b) Provisions subject to strict construction.--…