AC 1.1 Flashcards
7 STAGES OF A BILL IN PARL
- first reading - intro to commons
- second reading. main principles debated and vote
- committee stage - examined line by line and propose amendments
- report stage - vote on amendments
- third reading - vote to pass to lords
- (transfer) to lords - make precise amendements, HOC can accept or reject them and it can ping pong but commons have the final say
- royal assent - monarch signs to make it into bill
what is a green and white paper
green - new law is proposed which is up for public debate
white - if there is public support it becomes a white paper where law is proposed and set put formally then becomes a bill
how many lords and mps are there
and types of bills
HOC - 650
HOL - 787, 92 hereditary, 26 bishops
types of bills
private members bill - from mp
private bills - from companies
public bills - most common and from gov, unlikely to be blocked
what is the mischief rule
and example
allows the court to enforce what statute was intended to achieve rather than what is actually says
eg CORKERY V CARPENTER - he was convicted of being drunk on a ‘carriage; on the road despite him being on a bike. The mischief rule was used, arguing that the Acts purpose was to prevent people from using any form of transport drunk on the highway
what is the golden rule
example
used if the literal rule produces an absurd result. it allows to modify and look at other meanings of the word
eg Official secrets Act 1920 - an offence to obstruct her majesty’s forces ‘in the vicinity of’ a prohibited place. In Adler v George, Adler argued that he had not broken the law and the court applied the golden rule and he was convicted
what is the literal rule
negative and example
should be used by judges everyday
- words of the statute are given their ordinary meaning and applied without looking too deeply into it
however… a word can have several different meanings
eg R v Maginnis 1987 - involving drugs and different meaning were found of the word ‘supply’. he appealed his case and the court of appeal quashed the conviction because it wasn’t certain he had ‘supplied’ the drugs
what is statutory interpretation
judges take an act of parl and decide how it should be applied to each case
it is done by senior judges in high courts
they interpret the words meaning
they have three rules to help statutory interpretation
literal rule
golden rule
mischief rule
when can judicial precedent be applied
overruling- happens when a higher court decides that the decision of a lower court was wrong
distinguishing - when judge thinks they there are significant differences in the facts of the current case. precedent only applies if the legal issue and the facts of the case are similar
what is judicial precedent
judges in high courts set a precedent for judges in the future in similar cases in lower courts
eg common law is built up on precedent eg manslaughter and murder
