Can bills (the documents of laws/legislation) have pictures? Or text only? Can images become part of the legal code?

Question

Asking out of plain curiosity. I tried googling, but just couldn't find a combination of keywords that didn't bring up irrelevant results.

Laws become law when the congress approves of a "bill" - a document that dictates and explains the terms of the law. I've only heard of laws being represented as text only. But that seems limiting in the modern era and all the things we have to make laws about now. I'm curious if any of these documents used pictures or images in their explanation of the law, and thus if there are any images now part of the legal code.

I'm not interested in seals or letterhead or other decoration. Only an image that is part of the content of the law. Such that when a judge interprets the law they'd need to consider the image.

For example if they passed legislation protecting an endangered species and the bill contained a picture of the animal that would count.

I'm hoping someone can answer this about the US because that's where I'm from. But I'd also be happy to hear of examples from around the world if they exist.

I know it might seem like a silly question, but it's interesting to me. Thanks in advance if you can answer.

Answer 1

Regulations - Yes, Acts of Parliament - very rarely

In in the united-kingdom diagrams are found in regulations, for example legislation dealing with roadside symbols.

There are two kinds of legislation in the UK: Acts of Parliament and Statutory Instruments (normally called Regulations).

The procedure by which an Act of Parliament is passed is that it has to be approved by both Houses of the legislature and then receive Royal Assent (Royal Assent is a formality). The procedure in each House is that the main debates occur at the Committee Stage when amendments are proposed and voted on. At the next stage (Third Reading) the House votes again on whether to approve the Bill in its amended form.

Statutory Instruments (Regulations) are issued by the government (executive) and are known as delegated legislation because the government only has power to issue a regulation if an Act (called the parent Act) gives it power to do so. As you would expect there are safeguards. First of all the courts can declare invalid (ultra vires) any regulation whose terms go outside the limits of the power delegated by the Parent Act.

Sometime the parent Act will provide that Regulations issued by the government under delegated powers become law without further involvement of Parliament but sometimes an Act will provide for some limited further Parliamentary scrutiny. This can be either by the Positive Resolution (the regulation will not become law until Parliament approve it) or by the Negative Resolution procedure (the regulation will become law unless Parliament passes a resolution annulling it).

A key point, in the context of the question, is that neither the Positive nor the Negative Resolution procedure allows Parliament to amend the regulation - Parliament only has a binary choice to approve or disapprove. Of course if they disapprove then the government can issue a new amended regulation which then goes through the same process but the Positive/Negative resolution procedure does not allow Parliament itself to amend any regulation.

I think this explains why diagrams which are sometimes found in regulations are rarely found in Acts. Constitutional proprieties require any Bill to be amendable and any member of the legislature can propose a amendment. If the Bill included diagrams then there would be huge practical problems because any member who wanted to amend a diagram would have to produce his own amended diagram which he might not be able to do/might not have time to do before parliamentary deadlines. So constitutional proprieties would normally mean that in practice Bills must be solely words.

Regulations however cannot be amended by Parliament (see above) so such considerations do not prevent regulations from containing diagrams.

Having said that normally Bills will only contain words, there is this example of an Act which includes a diagram of a symbol. That symbol, however, is defined in an international convention so in practice no parliamentarian would want to amend it.

I know of no examples in the UK where a Bill (as distinct from regulations) contains an image which a member of the legislature might want to propose an amendment to.

Answer 2

There is no legal reason why pictures couldn't be in the text of a bill.

I don't know of any examples in the main text of the US Code. However, it has been pointed out to me that Title 4 of the US Code does contain, in the official notes, an executive order which contains an illustration.

Also, 16 CFR § 1207.5, which is part of the Code of Federal Regulations, contains several diagrams, and it isn't the only official regulation to do so. A judge would certainly need to consider those diagrams when considering whether someone broke the law which says you need to follow those regulations.

44 USC §904 says that maps, diagrams, and illustrations cannot be entered into the Congressional Record without approval from the Joint Committee on Printing. This, of course, implies that such things could go into the Congressional Record if that committee gives its approval.

Answer 3

While it isn't expressly forbidden, it is very rare to see this in legislature adopted statutes, which usually incorporate some other source by reference when there is an intent to do so.

In contrast, diagrams and images are rare but far more common in municipal ordinances (especially building codes and zoning codes), regulations and case law. Many real property cases, for example, include images.

Answer 4

Bills and laws do not usually contain pictures or other images. However I know of no rule against including relevant images. Most often, a description in words is used instead of any image.

For example, a law protecting a species as endangered would normally specify its common and Latin names, and perhaps quote or reference a formal scientific description of the species. For one thing, if a picture was included in the law, it might raise the question of whether members of the species that did not closely resemble the pictured individual were included in the protection.

Diagrams could be included, probably by reference, when defining official seals or flags or the like, but US Federal laws do not seem to do so in practice, relying on written descriptions instead.

Similarly, technical diagrams could be included, but this seems to be quite rare if it ever occurs -- I have not been able to find an actual case. If it does occur, it might well be done by reference, that is with the law naming a document that includes a diagram.

Update I have seen local ordinances with extensive diagrams: road plans and maps for development district ordinances. Local building codes may well include extensive diagrams. These may be included by reference but need not be. Subdivisions are also done by ordinance in the US and typically include maps.

Answer 5

australia

I cannot think of any primary legislation (acts of Parliament) that has illustrations but there is no reason they couldn’t.

It’s not common but some subordinate legislation (regulations, codes etc) is heavily illustrated including:

• the Road Rules
• items adopted by reference in the Environmental Planning & Assessment Regulation such as the Building Code of Australia. Worth noting that state and local governments plans prepared under this regulation are themselves regulations and often (always) include maps.

Answer 6

canada

There is no general rules against including images or other non-textual symbols in legislations, including statutes (Acts), regulations and other orders under royal or other authorities.

The Parliament can decide to include whatever it wants in its Acts. Of course, constitutional principles require laws to be sufficiently clear and precise and they can be declared invalid and unenforceable if vague laws deprive a person their "right to life, liberty and security of the person". But non-textual things are not automatically not clear.

For example, the Olympic (1976) Act declares as protected trademarks the beaver representations and the symbol used by the 1976 Olympics organizing committee and include their pictorial representations in the schedules. The National Anthem Act includes the music score of O Canada. The Canada Elections Act specifies the forms of the ballot and other elections-related documents.

Regulations utilizing non-textual representations (labels, maps, zoning charts, other diagrams) are even more numerous.

Answer 7

new-zealand

Diagrams, maps, and at least one photograph have appeared within many pieces of primary legislation, generally included as a schedule to the Act (which is part of the legislation as passed) and referenced from one or more clauses, rather than inline. For example, see:

• The Flags, Emblems, and Names Protection Act 1981 (a flag)
• The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000 (a map)
• The Fiordland (Te Moana o Atawhenua) Marine Management Act 2005
• The Major Events Management Act 2007: as well as various logos, a photograph used definitively

  THE OLYMPIC FLAME SYMBOL

  as depicted below, or in any other form, colours, context, or position, or in a hand-held torch with the Five Ring Olympic symbol, whether or not the Five Ring Olympic symbol is on a flag, and whether or not the torch and symbol are with the New Zealand Flag, or a Fern Leaf, or both

  

• All three schedules of the Subantarctic Islands Marine Reserves Act 2014
• The same in the Kaikōura (Te Tai o Marokura) Marine Management Act 2014
• Schedule 3 of Ngā Rohe Moana o Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Porou Act 2019 (map with colour)
• The Gore District Council (Otama Rural Water Supply) Act 2019, wherein its area of application is defined as "the area coloured blue on the map set out in Schedule 2".

They have become more common recently, and as seen above often when the law identifies areas of ocean. In general, text of the laws explicitly takes precedence if the diagram is inconsistent with a corresponding description, but some of these examples use the images as a definitive reference.

It is still more common for them to appear in regulations or secondary legislation created under an Act, where they have appeared across many decades (e.g. COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 5) 2021, Police Regulations 1992, New Zealand White Ensign Regulations 1968). They are often used to depict parks or reserves, or incorporated by reference from other agreements of the Crown (such as treaty settlements or international agreements).

Answer 8

The law about the state stamp and the state flag of Republic of Bulgaria pretty much contains depictions of the state stamp and the state flag, as well as mechanical drawings (with dimensions) of the flagpole finial.

(the images in the linked webpage are actual scans of the relevant images in the State Gazette)

Of course, the Road Traffic Law contains the images of the road signs.

Different specific legislation (e.g. food safety, technical oversight, etc...) contain images as well.