The current Virginia Code is the Code of 1950. There have been prior codes,
such as the 1942 Code mentioned. Each of these revisions however preserve
statutes previously adopted, which includes the "day of rest" provision. It
would be necessary to check the older codes, such as the Revised Code of
1819 to determine when it was first adopted. The "day of rest" while still
on the books has many exceptions which were attached also to the law
banning Sunday work. When this law was repealed in the recent action by the
General Assembly, it repealed the list of exceptions, in effect restoring
the "day of rest."
A short history of the Virginia "blue laws" is found at:
http://www.vahistorical.org/onthisday/11574.htm

Richard E. Dixon
Attorney at Law
4122 Leonard Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-691-0770
fax 703-691-0978


> [Original Message]
> From: kukla <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 7/16/2004 9:31:55 AM
> Subject: Colonial-era legal revivals?
>
> In the recent journalistic coverage of the General Assembly's inadvertent
revocation of a clause about day-of-rest legislation, we often heard that
the Assembly's stupid mistake had inadvertently 'revived centuries-old
blue-laws' (or words to that effect).
>   In the colonial era the Assembly periodically undertook wholesale
revisions ("revisals") of the laws (1705 comes to mind) and of course a
committee comprising Edmund Pendleton, Jefferson et al reworked the legal
code in the 1770s .....
>   More recently, I recall pretty clearly that Virginia had a major
revision of its statutes in 1942 (because its personnel provisions were
still in force in the early 70s).
>   The recent bungling aroused my curiosity as to the last time Virginia's
statutes were entirely revised? Surely, I would think, the inadvertent
revocation of a modern law might revive something from mid-20th century but
hardly something from the colonial era.
>   Related to that puzzle, I'm curious about the immeidate effects (if
any) the Commonwealth's periodic adoptions of new constitutions had on the
permanence and continuation of the legal code in force at the time a new
constitution was adopted?
>
> Jon Kukla
>
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