Ac 1.1: Describe Processes Used For Law Making Flashcards
What are laws made by parliament referred to as?
Statutes or act of Parliament
What is parliament made up of?
The Monarch
The House of Lords
The House of Commons
What are members of the House of Lords called?
Peers
How many peers are in the HOL?
780
How many hereditary peers and bishops/archbishops are there in HOL? What are the rest of them known as?
Hereditary peers - 92
Bishops/archbishops- 26
The rest - life peers
What is the main job of the Lords?
To act as a ‘double check’ on new laws
Why is the House of Commons the most important part of Parliament?
Because it is made up of elected representatives of the people.
How many MPs are there in HOC?
650
How do they become MPs in the HOC?
Elected at general elections to represent a constituency (a geographical area of the country)
How many MPs are there in each party of the HOC?
361 conservative
199 labour
45 Scottish national party
12 Liberal Democrat
A number from smaller parties
What is a bill?
A proposal for a new law
What is the governments job?
To run the country and most proposals for new laws come from the government as they are able to pass them through parliament
Before a bill is put to parliament, what two types of paper are produced?
Green and white
What is the green paper?
Constitution documents produced by the government. The aim of this is to allow people both inside and outside of parliament to give the department feedback on its policy or legislative proposals
What is the white paper?
Policy documents produced by the government that set out proposals for future legislation. Often published as command papers and may include draft version of a bill that is being planned. Allows final changes to be made before bill is presented to parliament.
What are the 7 parliamentary stages of a bill?
First reading
Second reading
The committee stage
The report stage
Third reading
The lords
Royal assent
What is the first reading?
First stage of a bills passage - usually a formality, it takes place without debate. Can take place anytime in a parliamentary session. Short title of bill is read out and bill is printed. Stage takes place in HOC.
What is the second reading?
The first opportunity for MPs to debate the general principles and themes of the bill. Takes place in HOC.
What is the committee stage?
Each clause (part) and any amendments (proposals for change) to the bill may be debated. Takes place in HOC with MPs and public bill committee.
What is the report stage?
If bill has been amended, it is reprinted before next stage. Bill can be debated and further amendments proposed. Takes place in HOC with MPs.
What is the third reading?
Final chance for the commons to debate the contents of a bill. Usually takes place immediately after report stage.
What is the lords stage?
If bill started in commons, it goes to HOL for first reading. If started in HOL, returns to HOL for consideration of any amendments commons has made. Takes place in HOL with peers/lords.
What is the royal assent stage?
Monarchs agreement to make the bill into an act and is a formality.
What is meant by judicial precedent?
Is a source of law making where the past decisions of judges create law for future judges to follow. It is the idea of stare decisis (standing by a decision)
What does a decision taken in a case by a higher court create?
An original or binding precedent
What are exceptions to precedent?
Distinguishing and overruling
What is distinguishing?
When a judge finds the facts in the present case to be different enough from the earlier one to allow them to reach a different decision and not have to follow the precedent of the earlier case
What is overruling?
When a court higher up in the hierarchy states that a legal decision in an earlier case is wrong and overturns it. Likely to happen in Supreme Court.
What is statutory interpretation?
Judges can also make law by the way they interpret the statutes or act of parliament.
What are the three rules under statutory interpretation?
Literal rule
Golden rule
Mischief rule
What is the literal rule?
Under this rule, judges should use everyday, ordinary meaning of the words in a statute.
What is the golden rule?
This can be used to modify the literal meaning of a word if it is likely to lead to an absurd result
What is the mischief rule?
This allows the court to enforce what the statute was intended to achieve, rather than what they say
