A law or statute enacted to oppose, nullify, or supersede another statute or legal provision.
Combines 'counter-' with 'statute,' from Old French 'statut' and Latin 'statutum' (that which is set up). The compound appears in legal discourse to describe legislative responses that contradict prior laws.
When legislatures pass counterstatutes, they're not just changing laws—they're creating legal conflicts that courts must resolve, which is why constitutional scholars study counterstatutes to understand how legal systems evolve through contradiction and revision.
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