Game law

Game laws are statutes which regulate the right to pursue and hunt certain kinds of wild animals (games or quarries) and fish (although the latter often comes under the jurisdiction of fisheries law). The scope of game laws can include the following: Restricting the days to harvest fish or game (i.e. open and closed seasons); Restricting the number of animals per person; Restricting species, sex and age of animals allowed to be harvested; Restricting the region where hunting is allowed to take place, and; Limiting the weapons, gears and techniques that can be used. Hunters, fishermen and lawmakers generally agree that the purposes of such laws is to balance the needs for preservation and harvest and to manage both environment and populations of game and fish. Game laws can provide a legal structure to collect license fees and other money which is used to fund conservation efforts as well as to obtain harvest information used in wildlife management practice. In Great Britain the game laws have developed out of the forest laws, which in the time of the Norman kings were very oppressive. Under William the Conqueror, it was as great a crime to kill one of the king's deer as to kill one of his subjects. A certain rank and standing, or the possession of a certain amount of property, were for a long time necessary to confer upon anyone the right of pursuing and killing game. The first game qualification law was instituted in 1389 under Richard II. It stated that anyone without lands or tenements of 40 shillings a year, or clergyman under £10 a year, were forbidden from keeping greyhounds, hounds, other hunting dogs, and any other hunting equipment. The preamble to the Act states that commoners tended to poach on Holy Days when their superiors attended church and that these gatherings encouraged social unrest. The game qualifications were further elaborated under James I and then Charles II. These new laws heightened property value thresholds for keeping game hunting animals and instruments.