Unit 1.1: Describe the processes for Law making. Flashcards
(23 cards)
How many stages are there in the governmental process or law making?
- 11
Can you name each stage?
- Green Paper.
- White paper.
- Bill.
- First reading.
- Second reading.
- Committee stage.
- Report stage.
- Third reading.
- Swap to parliament and repeat this process.
- House of Lords.
- Royal Assent.
- Act of Parliment.
What is the Green paper?
- Published by the government.
- It includes questions for anyone who may be interested to respond to and discuss.
What is the White paper?
- A document detailing the plans for the proposed law.
What is the bill?
- The thing put in front of parliament to review and make amendments.
What is the first reading?
- The first reading is a formal announcement of the bill made by the government to the house of commons.
- Once reviewed a vote takes place to allow it to progress to the second reading.
What happens during the second reading?
- In this stage, the bill is read and debated by the House of commons.
- Then a further vote is taken to allow its progression.
What is the Committee stage?
- The committee stage is where a small number of MP’s from different political parties examine the bill and suggest any amendments.
What is the report stage?
- This is where the committee provides a report to all MP’s based on their examination of the bill.
- This then provides a further opportunity for debate over the bill and vote on proposed amendments.
What happens during the third reading?
- At this stage, no further amendments are allowed however there are opportunities for further debate on the bill.
- Then there is a vote to accept or reject this bill.
What is the house of lords stage?
- The bill is then passed to the House of Lords, where it goes through the same process again.
- If any amendments are suggested, it is passed back over to the house of commons and a vote is taken to either reject or accept these changes.
Where is the final vote?
- The final vote is with the house of commons as many of them form the elected party.
What is the royal assent?
- Once the bill has gone through these stages and has been accepted, the bill is sent to the monarch to be signed
What happens during the Act of Parliament?
- A formal announcement is made to the public.
- There will be a decision made as to if the law is put into place immediately or on a certain date.
What is a real life example of a law that became an Act of Parliament?
The Dangerous Dogs Act (1991).
- It became an Act of Parliament by going through the governmental process.
- Due to the moral panic that was caused by the media, this process was rushed through each stage and given Royal Assent.
- Many people considered this problematic due to the absence of scrutiny which lead to breed blaming and failed to consider how owners treated their dogs.
What are the 2 Judicial processes of law making?
- Judicial Precedent.
- Statutory Interpretation.
What is Judicial Precedent?
- Where the past decisions of Judges create laws for future Judges to follow.
- This is to ensure cases are handled in consistent ways.
- Over time, this gave way to the large volume of laws that the whole country follow (the common law).
- As well as this, any decisions taken by the higher courts automatically create a precedent for courts that are lower in the hierarchy.
What is Distinguishing?
- Distinguishing is where a Judge can make a significant distinction between cases, when this is found precedent doesn’t have to be followed.
What is overruling?
This occurs when higher courts don’t agree with decisions made in a previous case.
What is Statutory Interpretation?
- This is where Judges rely on interpreting written laws when applying them to cases.
- There are three rules that they follow to make these interpretations:
a)- Literal Rule:
Interpretations using the ordinary meaning of words.
b)- Golden Rule:
This is where words can be modified to avoid an extreme result if the law is interpreted literally.
c)- Mischief rule:
This is where the intention of the law is used by the judge rather than the wording. For example: The Licencing act of 1872 made it illegal to drive a carriage under the influence of alcohol, the Judge them applied this to modern day by making it illegal to drive any forms of transport under the influence of alcohol.
What is a monarch?
- In the UK this refers to the King? Queen.
- They provide the Royal Assent which is their agreement to a new law.
What is the House of Lords?
- The house of lords is made up members that conduct checks on laws proposed by the House of Commons.
- The members can include: people from religious groups, life peers, and those who have inherited their position.
What is the House of Commons?
- Made up of 650 elected representatives of the people who are voted in by general elections.
- The Prime Minister leads the party that has the majority of the 650 votes.
