AC 1.1 Flashcards
What is the judicial precedent?
where a judge must follow the decision made in previous cases where the facts are the same as the present case
What is the binding precedent?
decisions of the court of appeal and the supreme court that must be followed by courts of the same level or lower
What are the Judge’s 3 main interpretation rules to help them when interpreting the wording written within law?
- The literal rule
- The golden rule
- The mischief rule
What is the golden rule?
- where there are two interpretations which is the least absurd
What is the mischief rule?
- what was Parliament trying to achieve with the law rather than what the words say
What is the literal rule?
- what is the literal meaning of the words used
What is the green paper stage of the law being made?
- public consultation on this new law
What happens after he public consultation when a new law is being made?
- after the green paper consultation, a ‘white paper’ with formal proposals is produced. This allows a draft act called a ‘bill’ to be presented to parliament.
What are the stages of a law being made?
- first reading
- second reading
- committee stage
- report stage
- third reading
- royal assent
What are the advantages of precedent?
- certainty - lawyers have some indication as to how a case will be decided
- flexibility - application of the law can changed
- precision - using similar cases makes it accurate
What are the disadvantages of precedent?
- large number of cases - difficult to find most appropriate precedent
- righty - system is too rigid and poor precedent may take several years to be amended
What is the first stage of a bill becoming a law?
- first reading
- title of the bill is read out by gov to House of Commons
- no debate on the bill
What is the second stage of a bill becoming a law?
- second reading
- debate on the main principles of the bill
- opposition respond and discuss it- the government will close the debate and a vote will be made
- if vote is lost by government, the bill cannot proceed further
What is the third stage of a bill becoming a law?
- committee stage
- a group of representatives look closely at the bill to address any issues and amendments
What is the fourth stage of a bill becoming a law?
- report stage
- the committee report back to the full house and vote on proposed amendments
What is the fifth stage of a bill becoming a law?
- third reading
- the final discussion and vote on the bill
What is the sixth stage of a bill becoming a law?
all above stages are now repeated in the other house
What is the seventh stage of a bill becoming a law?
- both houses must agree on the text of a bill
- new amendments must be considered
- this stage is often called ‘ping pong’
What is the eighth stage of a bill becoming a law?
- royal assent
- the monarch signs the bill
- they cannot refuse at this point as it now only symbolic that it is signed
What is the ninth and final stage of an bill becoming a law?
- the bill then become an act of parliament and a commencement date is given
Given an example of judicial precedent?
Donoghue vs Stevenson
- a woman drank a drink with an animal in the bottle
What is statutory interpretation?
the main role of the senior courts is to interpret the law. This is necessary when a new piece of legislation is introduced and the words and meaning of the Act needs to be considered. The judges use various rules and statutory aids to assist them. Later courts will then allow these interpretations via judicial precedent, ie the interpretation becomes law
Which rhyme can be used to remember the stages of a law being made?
Green
Winged
Dragon
Flies
Slowly
Clockwise
Round
The
Old
Ruin
