## Earlier & Later Acts and Analogous Acts
### (a) Statutes in pari materia
Where different statutes are in pari materia (i.e. dealing with the same subject matter or analogous cases) — though made at different times, even if some have expired and even if they do not refer to each other — they should be:
- Read together as one system, and
- Treated as explanatory of each other.
### (b) Exposition of One Act by Language of Another
Where a single section of one Act is incorporated into another statute, it must be read in the sense it bore in the original Act.
- Therefore, the rest of the original Act must be referred to in order to determine what that section means, even though only one section has been bodily lifted into the new Act.
### (c) Earlier Act Explained by the Later Act
A later Act explaining the earlier one can be used to construe the earlier Act.
- If the earlier Act contained a negative or restrictive provision and the later Act contains a more general one, the two are read so as to harmonise — not conflict.
### (d) Reference to a Repealed Act
Where a part of an Act has been repealed:
- That part loses its operative force.
- But the repealed part may still be used to construe the un-repealed part, because it is part of the history of the present Act.