Talk:Stamp Act 1712

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Legal documents / legal English

Blackstone (Commentaries III 21) is quite interesting on the evolution of legal language in England - and he mentions the problems caused by shifting from Latin to English. English uses more words for the same thing (his example - n.23 there - is L. secundum formam statuti becomes Eng. "according to the form of the statute"), so the stamp-duty limit on the number of words per sheet of a legal document "has much enhanced the expense of all legal proceedings".

The literary and political grumbles about the Act - along with the substantial concerns around state management of dissent - are familiar and are well reflected in the article's sources. The stamp duty on newspapers etc was repealed in 1855.

It's the tax on legal documents tht continues into the present. (With an interesting shift, from form to substance: it's now the transaction which is taxed, not the paper on which it is recorded.)

The article needs to take a wider and fuller view of the Act, and of its effects as well as its intentions. The current material should be set within that wider context. 2A04:B2C2:1800:DF00:20BC:6B1C:6DC0:9EE5 (talk) 03:43, 27 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Inscrutable infobox

The infobox states the Act as "Repealed 1 July 1855", but (under its Other legislation heading) as "Repealed by [the] Revenue Officers' Disabilities Removal Act 1874". Those dates don't agree. If the information is somehow not in error a note explaining the dates is needed. 2A04:B2C2:1800:DF00:20BC:6B1C:6DC0:9EE5 (talk) 03:56, 27 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]