Ky. Const. art. I, § 59 — Article I / Section 59
Ky. Const. § 59
Status: in_force

Section 59   Local and special legislation. 
 
The General Assembly shall not pass local or special acts concerning any of the 
following subjects, or for any of the following purposes, namely: 
 
First: To regulate the jurisdiction, or the practice, or the circuits of the courts of 
justice, or the rights, powers, duties or compensation of the officers thereof; but the 
practice in circuit courts in continuous session may, by a general law, be made different 
from the practice of circuit courts held in terms. 
 
Second: To regulate the summoning, impaneling or compensation of grand or petit 
jurors. 
 
Third: To provide for changes of venue in civil or criminal causes. 
 
Fourth: To regulate the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors, or to remit fines, 
penalties or forfeitures. 
 
Fifth: To regulate the limitation of civil or criminal causes. 
 
Sixth: To affect the estate of cestuis que trust, decedents, infants or other persons 
under disabilities, or to authorize any such persons to sell, lease, encumber or dispose of 
their property. 
 
Seventh: To declare any person of age, or to relieve an infant or feme covert of 
disability, or to enable him to do acts allowed only to adults not under disabilities. 
 
Eighth: To change the law of descent, distribution or succession. 
 
Ninth: To authorize the adoption or legitimation of children. 
 
Tenth: To grant divorces. 
 
Eleventh: To change the names of persons. 
 
Twelfth: To give effect to invalid deeds, wills or other instruments. 
 
Thirteenth: To legalize, except as against the Commonwealth, the unauthorized or 
invalid act of any officer or public agent of the Commonwealth, or of any city, county or 
municipality thereof. 
 
Fourteenth: To refund money legally paid into the State Treasury. 
 
Fifteenth: To authorize or to regulate the levy, the assessment or the collection of 
taxes, or to give any indulgence or discharge to any assessor or collector of taxes, or to his 
sureties. 
 
Sixteenth: To authorize the opening, altering, maintaining or vacating of roads, 
highways, streets, alleys, town plats, cemeteries, graveyards, or public grounds not owned 
by the Commonwealth. 
 
Seventeenth: To grant a charter to any corporation, or to amend the charter of any 
existing corporation; to license companies or persons to own or operate ferries, bridges, 
roads or turnpikes; to declare streams navigable, or to authorize the construction of 
booms or dams therein, or to remove obstructions therefrom; to affect toll gates or to 
regulate tolls; to regulate fencing or the running at large of stock. 
 
Eighteenth: To create, increase or decrease fees, percentages or allowances to public 
officers, or to extend the time for the collection thereof, or to authorize officers to appoint 
deputies. 


 
Nineteenth: To give any person or corporation the right to lay a railroad track or 
tramway, or to amend existing charters for such purposes. 
 
Twentieth: To provide for conducting elections, or for designating the places of 
voting, or changing the boundaries of wards, precincts or districts, except when new 
counties may be created. 
 
Twenty-first: To regulate the rate of interest. 
 
Twenty-second: To authorize the creation, extension, enforcement, impairment or 
release of liens. 
 
Twenty-third: To provide for the protection of game and fish. 
 
Twenty-fourth: To regulate labor, trade, mining or manufacturing. 
 
Twenty-fifth: To provide for the management of common schools. 
 
Twenty-sixth: To locate or change a county seat. 
 
Twenty-seventh: To provide a means of taking the sense of the people of any city, 
town, district, precinct or county, whether they wish to authorize, regulate or prohibit 
therein the sale of vinous, spirituous or malt liquors, or alter the liquor laws. 
 
Twenty-eighth: Restoring to citizenship persons convicted of infamous crimes. 
 
Twenty-ninth: In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable, no 
special law shall be enacted. 
Text as Ratified on:  August 3, 1891, and revised September 28, 1891. 
History:  Not yet amended.