Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

special statute

A law that applies only to specific individuals, as opposed to everyone. - Also termed private statute. "It is ancient wisdom, tracing back at least as far as the Roman taboo against the privilegium, that laws ought to be general, they ought to be addressed, not to particular persons, but to persons generally or to classes of persons (say, 'all householders'). Accordingly, a number of American states have inserted in their constitutions prohibitions against 'private or special' statutes. These have given rise to endless difficulties." Lon L. Fuller, Anatomy of the Law 102-03 (1968).