CANAL ZONE CODE AN ACT OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE CANAL ZONE, APPROVED JUNE 19, 1934 TOGETHER WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING CERTAIN TREATIES AND CABLE IN OR RELATING TO THE CANAL UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1934 PREFACE This Code of Laws for the Canal Zone embraces all the laws relating to or applying in the Canal Zone, except such general laws of the United States as relate to or apply in the Canal Zone. The preparation of the code was authorized by the act of Congress approved May 17, 1928 (45 Stat. 596), which authorized the President to have all the laws in force in the Canal Zone revised and codified, and to report the same to Congress for its approval. Under authority of that act, the President placed the work of revision and codification under the supervision of the Governor of the Panama Canal, and ordered the appointment of Paul A. Bentz as codifier. Mr. Bentz remained in active charge of the codification until its completion. The material included in the code has its source in acts of Congress, in certain acts and ordinances of the former Isthmian Canal Commission which were ratified and confirmed as valid and binding by Congress in the Panama Canal Act of 1912, and, in a limited number of sections, in Executive orders of the President which were likewise ratified and confirmed by Congress. The code embodies the existing laws without substantive change except in the cases of 29 sections wherein alteration was found to be desirable in the interests of uniformity and effectiveness. Twenty of the changes consist in the elimination of minimum punishments from the following sections of Title 5, The Criminal Code: Sections 92, 93, 103, 131, 175, 206, 293, 363, 644, 654, 737, 753, 789, 803, 823, 828, 830, 836, 839, and 843. The other sections embodying substantive change are as follows: Title 2, sections 33, 158, and 159; title 4, section 1706; and title 5, sections 257, 281, 401, 603, and 787. Citations or "credits" are employed following the text of such sections only as were enacted or amended by Congress prior to the enactment of this code. In the cases of Title 3, The Civil Code, and Title 4, The Code of Civil Procedure, citations have been restricted to the first section in order to avoid unnecessary repetition. The appendix is designed to afford a convenient means of reference to certain treaties and general laws of the United States applicable in or relating to the Canal Zone or the Panama Canal. An attempt has been made to represent all general laws which are applicable, setting forth the text of the law in the cases wherein that course is warranted by the extent of the practical application of the law and in all other cases inserting an appropriate reference to the law under a proper heading. It is sought in the parallel reference tables to facilitate reference to the former law by showing the origin thereof, whether in act of Congress, Executive order, or act or ordinance of the Isthmian Canal Commission, and, in addition, in the cases of titles 3 to 6, to show the sources of the sections in the California law in order to render more accessible the decisions of the California courts construing those sections. |