AC 1.1 Flashcards
Three bodies of Parliament
House of Commons
House of Lords
Monarch
House of Commons
Made up of 650 MPs who each represent a local constituency. Also known as the Democratic House as they are selected by vote of the people and have a political agenda.
House of Lords
Life Peers who have been voted or recognised - Lord and Baroness. Influential people for the public such as Lord Alun Sugar - influential in the Business industry.
Also can be hereditary who have inherited the title such as the Monarch and the Bishop.
They don’t have a political agenda and they are impartial from the government and the public.
Monarch
Approve the law.
Meets with the PM every week to discuss new laws.
Gives Royal Assent.
Making laws in Parliament
Laws made in Parliament are called statutes, Acts of Parliament, Legislation.
Parliament creates legislation in the UK and everyone has to follow these laws.
Bill
An idea for a law which goes through stages to be a statute.
Types of Bills
Public Bill
Private Bill
Private Members Public Bill
Government Bills
Personal Bills
Private Bills
Intended to affect one particular area or organisation.
EG: NHS, Education
Public Bills
Intended to affect the public as a whole.
EG: Dangerous Dog Act
Private Members’ Bills
Type of Public Bill
Sponsored by an individual MP or a Peer. Affects the whole of the public but it is a private member who introduced it to Parliament.
Government Bills
Type of Public Bill
Steered through Parliament by a minister from the appropriate government department.
Personal Bills
Type of Private Bill
Affects one or two people. Always begins in the Lords.
Turning a bill into an act process
- Consultation Stage
- First Reading
- Second Reading
- Committee Stage
- Report Stage
- Third Reading
- Bill goes to other House
- Royal Assent
Consultation Stage
Government makes a draft of the Bill and asks senior officials to make comments.
First Reading
Government tells everyone about the Bill by reading out its title in the House of Commons or Lords to let everyone know about it.
Second Reading
Main debating stage where all MPs or Lords can discuss the Bill, ask questions and vote on it. Can be voted out at this stage.
Committee Stage
A smaller group of MPs or Lords look at the Bill in detail. May make amendments based on their discussions. Scrutinises further.
Report Stage
Amendments made during the Committee Stage are reported to everyone in either House. MPs or Lords may vote on these amendments.
Third Reading
Overall consideration of the Bill in either House and final votes to decide whether it goes any further.
Bill goes to the other House
Follow similar stages. They can suggest amendments to the Bill and then send it back, that House may send it back again until an agreement can be reached. If no agreement can be reached, the House of Commons can vote to pass the law without agreement from the House of Lords.
Royal Assent
Monarch signs-off the Bill as a new law or ‘Act of Parliament’.
Ping Pong Affect
If House of Lords has made a change it must go back to the Commons and vice versa. Occurs until an agreement is reached. Cannot go to Royal Assent until this happens.
Judges
Listen to the facts of a case in court.
Will sentence aftere Jury’s verdict and give a HELD.
=judgement
That judgement creates a precedent.
Precedent and Common Law
Precedent = a rule for other judges to follow if the facts in the case are similar
Common Law = judge made law
Statutory Interpretation
How judges interpret statutes - the law made by Parliament
Have to apply it to a case specifically and so will need to interpret it
Three rules to interpretation
Literal Rule
Golden Rule
Mischief Rule
Literal Rule
Dictates the statutes are to be interpreted using the ordinary meaning of the language of the statute. Requires a judge to interpret what the law states “actually”.
Golden Rule
Allows the court to modify the literal meaning of words in a statute to avoid absurdity or inconsistency. More flexible and adaptable to the broader implications of the law.
Mischief Rule
Determines the intention of the legislators and to correct the defect or mischief the statute was passed to remedy.
Gives most discretion to judges and is applied in specific, usually ambiguous cases.
Can only be used to statutes that were passed to fix a problem in the common law.
Literal Rule: CHEESEMAN V DPP (1990)
Defendant acquitted because police officers were not considered ‘passengers’ after being caught masturbating in a public toilet
Town Police Clauses Act 1987 - have to be passengers to arrest under those circumstances
Oxford English dictionary - ‘passenger’ could also mean ‘foot-passenger’ but police were not actually travelling at the time, were stationed
Public Health Amendment Act 1902 - ‘street could also mean any public place under the control of the local authority’
Literal Rule: WHITELEY V CHAPPELL (1868)
Defendant charged under an act that made it illegal to impersonate anyone entitled to vote.
Defendant pretended to be a deceased person.
As the deceased aren’t entitled to vote, the literal rule was applied and the defendant acquitted.
Literal Rule: LONDON & NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY CO V BERRIMAN (1946)
Railway worker who was maintaining the track died.
His widow sought compensation but statute stated she could only do so ‘for the purposes of relaying and repairing.’
He was joining the tracks not relaying or repairing - the literal rule applied and widow received nothing
Literal Rule: Advantages
Respects the words of Parliament
Prevents judicial law making
Provides certainty in the law
Literal Rule: Disadvantages
Assumes an act will be perfectly drafted
Words may have more than one meaning
Can lead to absurd results
Golden Rule: GREY V PEARSON (1857)
Lord Wensleydale:
“The grammatical and ordinary sense of the word is to be adhered to, unless that would lead to some absurdity…in which case the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words may be modified so as to avoid that absurdity and inconsistency, but no further.”
Golden Rule: R V ALLEN (1872)
Defendant charged with bigamy under the Offences against the Person Act 1861.
Court had to interpret the word ‘marry’ as ‘going through a marriage ceremony’ using the golden rule.
Defendants conviction was upheld.
If used literal rule, the offence could never have been committed, since no one married could marry another.
Golden Rule: Advantages & Disadvantages
+ Allows judges to choose and provide the most sensible meaning
- Hard to predict when it’ll be used and is very limited in its use
Mischief Rule: SMITH V HUGES (1960)
Used to interpret the Street Offences Act 1959.
Defendants were prostitutes trying to grab the attention of people in the street from a balcony.
Balcony technically not a public place.
Applied to interpret that the prostitutes were doing what the statute was trying to abolish so they were convicted.
Problem with the statute is that there is prostitution in general and not just on the street.
Mischief Rule: Advantages and Disadvantages
+ Make sure the gaps in the law are filled and gives the most flexibility
- Judicial law making makes it biased
Precedent
Judge makes a decision in a case which is followed in future cases which have similar material facts.
Precedent: DONOGHUE V STEVENSON
While drinking ginger beer in a cafe, a woman found a decomposed snail.
Sued the manufacturers for negligence.
Held that manufacturers owed the customers a duty of care.
Had to be followed for future cases as high courts bind low courts.
Judges can avoid precedent in three ways:
Reverse
Overrule
Distinguish
