AC 1.1

Question 1

how are laws made?

Answer 1

• by parliament
• often referred to as statues or legislations

Question 2

what is parliament made up of?

Answer 2

• the monarch
• the House of Lords
• the House of Commons

Question 3

what are the members of the House of Lords called and how many members are there?

Answer 3

• called peers
• 800 peers

Question 4

what is the main job of peers?

Answer 4

• to double check on new laws

Question 5

how are members of the House of Commons chosen?

Answer 5

• elected every 5 years by the public

Question 6

main job of the members of the House of Commons?

Answer 6

• to debate law
• make & review laws
• represent the public

Question 7

what is the main job of the government?

Answer 7

• to run the country

Question 8

how is a government formed?

Answer 8

• by the political party that has the majority of the MPs

Question 9

where do most proposals for new laws come from?

Answer 9

• the government

Question 10

what is a proposal for a new law called?

Answer 10

• a bill

Question 11

what must happen for bills to become laws?

Answer 11

• they must be agreed by both Houses of Parliament and receive the royal assent

Question 12

what is green paper?

Answer 12

• initial report to provoke public discussion of the subject of the bill

Question 13

what is white paper?

Answer 13

• a document setting out the governments plan for a legislation

Question 14

what are the parliamentary stages of a bill?

Answer 14

• first reading
• second reading
• the committee stage
• the report stage
• third reading
• the lords
• royal assent

Question 15

what is the first reading?

Answer 15

• formal announcement of the bill and is followed bt a vote to move it to the next stage

Question 16

what is the second reading?

Answer 16

• the main principles are considered and debated by the House of Commons and a vote is then taken.

Question 17

what is the committee stage?

Answer 17

• the bill is examined in detail by a small committee made up by MPs from different parties, the committee will report back to the House of Commons and often propose amendments

Question 18

what is the report stage?

Answer 18

• gives MPs the chance to consider the committee report and debate and vote on any amendments they might wish to make for the bill

Question 19

what is the third reading?

Answer 19

• final chance for the commons to debate the bills content, there are no amendments allowed now and the house will vote either to pass or reject the bill

Question 20

what is the lords stage?

Answer 20

• the bill goes to the House of Lords and goes through the same stages as the commons
• If the lords amended the bill it must return to the commons where they’ll debate the lords amendments
• the House of Commons has the final say

Question 21

what is the royal assent stage?

Answer 21

• once the bill has been passed by both house it will go to the monarch for signing, this is the monarchs agreement to make the bill a law

Question 22

examples of criminal statues

Answer 22

• the criminal justice act (2003)
• the dangerous dogs act (1991)
• the crime sentences act (1997)

Question 23

what is the judicial process of law making?

Answer 23

• judicial precendent
• statutory interpretation

Question 24

what is judicial precedent?

Answer 24

• source of law making where past decisions of judges create law for future judges to follow

Question 25

what does judicial precedent create?

Answer 25

- fairness - consistency

Question 26

who is at the top and bottom of the court hierarchy?

Answer 26

- at the top of the court hierarchy is the Supreme Court and at the bottom is the magistrates court

Question 27

what happens if a decision is taken in a case by a higher court?

Answer 27

- it automatically creates an original or binding precedent for all lower courts

Question 28

what are the two exceptions to precedent?

Answer 28

- distinguishing - overruling

Question 29

what does distinguishing mean?

Answer 29

- the judge finds the facts in the precedent case are different enough from the earlier case to allow the judge to reach a different verdict and not follow precedent

Question 30

what does overruling mean?

Answer 30

- where a court higher up the hierarchy states that a legal decision in an earlier case is wrong and overturns it eg: law on marital rape

Question 31

what is statutory interpretation?

Answer 31

- judges can make law by the way they interpret the statues or acts of parliament

Question 32

what are the three main interpretation rules for judges?

Answer 32

- the literal rule - the golden rule - the mischief rule

Question 33

what is the literal rule?

Answer 33

- judges should use the ordinary definition of the words in a statue - however, a problem with this method is that a word can have multiple dictionary meanings

Question 34

what is the golden rule?

Answer 34

- allows the court to modify the literal meaning to avoid absurd results caused by the literal rule

Question 35

what is the mischief rule?

Answer 35

- allows the court to enforce what the statue was intended to achieve rather than what the words actually say