Paragraph, article, section

in statutes, how are the various parts divided up? UK legislation follows the following hierarchy, from largest to smallest: chapter - Acts of Parliament are referred to by year and they also have a "chapter" number. part - Acts are divided into several Parts. article - these may appear in international documents section subsection paragraph sub-paragraph Notice that in continental Europe there are often false friends for the words "article" and "section", another problem is that European Union legislation when written in English does not follow the British conventional hierarchy- rather, it uses the continental format where a section can contain various articles. note also that before a piece of legislation enters into force by receiving royal assent, that is to say while it is still being discussed by parliament the legislation is called a bill and the items which will become sections are referred to as clauses.