July 2008 - 20

A player's guide
to the changes in
the laws
A new version of the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge
will take effect in September. Here is what you need to know
about the changes.
As a player, you may be asking
what impact the changes in the laws
have upon you. The answer is, as
usual, very little. This is because the
changes deal with restoring equity
when there has been an irregularity.
There have been no changes of the
basic rules or laws - e.g., scoring
is unchanged and the ranks of the
denominations are the same.
One overall change in wording is
reflective of the original intent of the
laws to "redress damage and not to
penalize." To emphasize this intent,
the laws now use the word penalty
only in reference to procedural and
disciplinary penalties. In all other
cases, the Laws use the word "rectification."
There was a global attempt to
reorganize laws or sections of laws to
put the sections of law dealing with a
topic in one place. However, the numbering system remains intact - there
are still 93 laws and the general topic
of each is unaltered.
The changes in Laws 1-15 will not
be noticed by ACBL players. Many
of the changes are in wording and
organization. Of the content changes,
most only codify and clarify current
ACBL practices.
While Law 16 has been reorganized
and reworded, there is only one
change affecting ACBL procedures
and current practice. Under the
revised law, when an opponent has
made extraneous or unauthorized
information available (e.g., an unmistakable break in tempo - hesitation),
an ACBL player may announce that
he is reserving his right to call the director later. If an opponent disagrees
that unauthorized information might
have been conveyed or made avail20

able (i.e., believes
there was no break in
tempo), the director
should be called immediately.
In Laws 17-21,
again most changes,
if any, are in wording
and organization. In
Law 20, however,
some current ACBL
practices and procedures have been codified or clarified
and should be noted:
❖ A player may not ask a question
(at the appropriate time) solely
for partner's benefit.
❖ If your partner asks a question
at his turn to call or play, you
may not ask a supplementary
question until it is your turn.
❖ Declarer's first turn to play is
from dummy except when accepting an opening lead out of
turn.
Law 22 now defines the time
between the end of the auction and
the end of the auction period as the
clarification period. This is the time
when questions can be asked before
the opening lead is made and faced.
In Laws 23 and 24, there are no
changes that affect current application of the laws.
Law 25, Changes of Calls, has been
substantially changed by deleting the
current "purposeful correction" option. Under the revised law, if a call
is deemed unintended (inadvertent),
it may be changed if done without
pause for thought. This is identical to
current law.
The new part is that if the call was

not unintended, it stands unless the
caller's left-hand opponent accepts
an attempt to substitute another call.
Law 16D applies to the call that was
withdrawn: Knowledge of the withdrawn call is unauthorized for the
offender's partner.
Law 26 has no changes that affect
current application of the laws.
Under Law 27, which addresses
insufficient bids, a player who makes
a natural insufficient bid may still
make it sufficient at the lowest sufficient level without any bidding
restriction on partner.
Law 27 has been amended such
that the director may permit an insufficient bid to be corrected, without
rectification/penalty (i.e., bidding
restriction), by another call that has,
in the director's opinion, the same
meaning or a more precise meaning.
For example: 2NT - Pass - 2
(over 1NT this is a transfer to hearts),
the 2 bid may be corrected to
3 without a bidding restriction
(rectification) on partner if the 3
bid is also a transfer to hearts. However, part D of Law 27 allows the
director to assign an adjusted score
if without the insufficient bid the
outcome (result) may well have been
different and the non-offending side
Bridge Bulletin
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2008
