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Law Mock 2024 > Law Making > Flashcards

Law Making Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a government whip?

A

-Whips are MPs or Lords appointed by each party in Parliament to help organise their party’s contribution to parliamentary.
- One of their responsibilities is making sure the maximum number of their party members vote, and vote the way their party wants.

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2
Q

What is a bill?

A

a draft proposal for a law

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3
Q

What are the stages of a bill becoming law?

A
  • Idea - Green paper and white paper
  • First reading
  • Second reading
  • Committee stage
  • Report stage
  • Third reading
  • Process is repeated by other Houseof
  • Royal assent
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4
Q

What is the process on a bill becoming law before it having its first reading?

A
  • Green paper – this is a proposal for a new law.
  • Members of the public, pressure groups and anybody that is interested are invited to give their views.
  • If the government think that the idea has enough valid support, it is written up properly as a white paper’ for a study as to how the idea would work out in practise
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5
Q

What occurs at the first reading of a bill becoming law?

A
  • Where the minister responsible reads out the proposal in the house and there is no debate at this stage and is then published and distributed for MPs to go away and read it
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6
Q

What occurs at the second reading of a bill becoming law?

A
  • The Minister will come back to the house and the defence will debate over it.
  • The debate is only about the overall idea and not the detail of whether it’s right or wrong.
  • At the end of the debate, there is the first vote
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7
Q

What occurs at the committee stage of a bill becoming law?

A
  • The government always has a majority of seats in the committee
    -They will go through the bill carefully but if there are any problems they may call for it to be fixed/altered (amendments)
  • A vote will happen at the end
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8
Q

What occurs at the report stage of a bill becoming law?

A
  • Coming back to make any amendments that are there and if there’re none then this stage is skipped
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9
Q

What occurs at the third reading of a bill becoming law?

A
  • Its the final time for MPs to discuss the bill.
  • The last chance for ordinary MPs to put forward their own proposals
  • The final thing is the vote
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10
Q

What happens after the third reading allowing the bill to become law?

A
  • Once a Bill has been agreed by both Houses it will receive Royal Assent
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11
Q

What are the different types of bills?

A
  • Acts of Parliament or statutes
  • Private members’ Bills
  • Private bills
  • Hybrid bills
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12
Q

What are ‘the acts of parliament’ or statutes and how’re they made?

A
  • Official government proposal for a new law (Act of Parliament)
  • Will be handled by the relative department
  • Drawn up by civil service lawyers known as ‘draftsmen’ or ‘parliamentary counsel’
  • Must accurately represent the government’s wishes, but must also be legally accurate
  • Introduced in Parliament by the relevant minister
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13
Q

What are the factors of a private members’ bills?

A
  • Can be introduced by any MP or Lord from any party as long as they are not government ministers
  • Selected either by -
    -Ballot
    -Ten - minute rule
  • Time for debate is restricted
  • Most do not pass
  • Most are ‘public bills’ as they involve matters of public policy. E.g. Abortion Act 1967, Marriage Act 1994
  • Occasionally, the government might look at a private members bill and actually support it. E.g. abortion and banning fox hunting was added this way
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14
Q

What are the factors of a private bill?

A
  • Bills that only affect individual people or corporations, rather than the public at large
  • E.g. Faversham Oyster Fishery Company Bill 2016
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15
Q

What are the factors of a hybrid bill?

A
  • Cross between a Public and a Private Bill
  • Where a government initiative affects particular people, organisations, or places
  • E.g. Crossrail and HS2 Acts
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16
Q

What is statutory interpretation?

A

The process of interpreting statutes (Acts of parliament) by judges

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17
Q

Why is statutory interpretation used by judges?

A
  • Most statutes are very clear and specific, however judges still need to use statutory interpretation to help him interpret the law properly
  • So, whilst the words in statutes ARE usually specific, there are sometimes cases where words or general meanings can be ambiguous and vague. Some words might have several meanings for instance
  • Hence, without statutory interpretation, judges might have difficulty interpreting the law accurately
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18
Q

What are the reasons why statutory interpretation is needed?

A
  • Changes in the use of language
  • The draftsman may use a broad term (“a word or phrase of wide meaning”) and leave it to the user to judge what situations fall within it. E.g. ‘any dog of the type known as the pit bull terrier’. Is a type a breed?
  • Ambiguous words may be used. More than one meaning
  • There may be unforeseeable developments. E.g. OAPA 1861 - Theres a part that talks about abortion and it says whoever has an abortion or performs an abortion will be guilty in a legal offence. Abortion Act 1967 legalised abortion and that part of OAPA is no longer relevant
  • There are many ways in which the wording may be inadequate. There may be a printing error, a drafting error or another error
19
Q

What are the factors under the literal rule?

A
  • Under the literal rule, the words in a statute are given their ordinary and natural meaning. They will be read literally and do not need to be analysed further for different meanings, disregarding the plain words of the legislation
  • The problem with the literal rule is that occasionally if the law is applied as it is written, it may in certain cases lead to a ‘perverse outcome’ i.e. it could make things worse. E.g. Whiteley v Chappell (1868)
20
Q

What are the 3 rules under statutory interpretation?

A
  • The literal rule
  • The golden rule
  • The mischief rule
20
Q

What is a case relating to the literal rule and the meaning behind it?

A
  • Cheeseman v DPP (1990)
  • An appeal by way of cases stated. Judges, in order to interpret words from a particular time, can use a dictionary from that time to explain the word
21
Q

What are the factors of the golden rule including the narrow and wider approach?

A
  • Narrow approach, where there are only a couple of ways in which the judge can interpret words, so they will choose the meaning that makes the most sense
  • E.g. Adler v George - “in the vicinity”, one meaning, that means ‘near ‘, the other meaning would include actually being in the area itself.
  • The wider approach allows the judge to be more flexible and possibly add in words to avoid an absurd outcome.
  • E.g. The Re Sigsworth (1935) - the judge added to the words to include ‘unless they had filled the victim to inherit their wealth’
22
Q

Where is the mischief rule laid down and when is it used?

A
  • Laid down in the landmark Heydon’s Case (1584) where the court said four issues need to be considered when interpreting statutes. These were to: examine the common law prior to the Act, locate the mischief or defeat in the common law, identify the remedy Parliament meant to propose to eliminate the mischief, and finally, to give effect to that remedy
  • Used when the words of an act may not be adequate, so the judge has to look back at the reason the law was passed in the first place, the problem or the ‘mischief’ it was trying to correct and then make a judgement on that basis
23
Q

Why did the mischief rule apply to Smith v Hughes (1960)?

A

Even though the Act says ‘in a street or public place’ the Act was made to clean up the streets and to enable people to walk along the streets without being molested or solicited by common prostitutes

24
Q

Why did the mischief rule apply to Eastbourne Borough Council v Stirling (2000)?

A

Even though he was on private land, customers would of come from the street and as he doesnt have a licence its still illegal to do so. Getting customers from where they shouldn’t have been

25
Q

Why did the mischief rule apply to Royal College of Nursing v DHSS (1981)?

A
  • Even though a part of the abortion wasn’t done by a doctor, it was still done by professionals limiting the risk of the women’s life unlike the law before 1967 and the number of illegal ones across the years.
  • Also, a nurse is still a registered medical employee which isn’t a practitioner but still having the skill to provide an abortion for a women
26
Q

What are the advantages of the literal rule?

A
  • Follows wording of Parliament
  • Prevents unelected judge making law
  • Makes the law more certain
  • Easier to predict how the judges will interpret the law
27
Q

What are the disadvantages of the literal rule?

A
  • Not all Acts are perfectly drafted
  • Have more than one meaning
  • Can lead to unfair or unjust decisions
28
Q

What are the advantages of the golden rule?

A
  • Respects the words of parliament
  • Allows the judge to choose the most sensible meaning
  • Avoids the worst problems of the literal rule
29
Q

What are the disadvantages of the golden rule?

A
  • Can only be used in limited situations
  • Not possible to predict when the courts will use it
  • It is a ‘feeble parachute’ (Zander)
30
Q

What are the advantages of the mischief rule?

A
  • Deals with the mischief that parliament was trying to deal with
  • Fills in the gap in the law
  • Produces a ‘just’ result
31
Q

What are the disadvantages of the mischief rule?

A
  • Risk of judicial law making
  • Not as wide as the purposive approach
  • Limited to looking back at the old law
  • Can make the law uncertain
32
Q

What are the main reasons for law reform?

A
  • The law needs to adapt to changes in society. This may require new laws to be passed or old ones to be cancelled
  • To clear up confused law (which creates expense). Simpler law saves legal fees
33
Q

What is the Law Commission and what does it focus on?

A
  • Set up as a permanent body in 1965
  • The Law Commission focuses on:
    -Keep under review all of the law
    -Development and reform of the law
    -Codification (writing down proposals for new laws or clarifying old ones)
    -Repealing obscure or no longer relevant laws
34
Q

What is the process of the Law Commission considering areas of law believed to be in need of reform?

A

Research topic is either chosen by the Law Commission itself or referred to it by the government
↓
Law Commission researches law
↓
Law Commission issues consultation paper
↓
Law Commission issues a final report

35
Q

What is codification?

A

Combining the law from several Acts of Parliament into one Act of Parliament to restate everything into one single statute

36
Q

What has the Law Commission done to implement the idea of reform of codification?

A
  • ‘Draft Criminal Code’, published in 1985, incorporated the main general principle of criminal law but has never been implemented by government
  • In 2008, the Law Commission stated that it would now concentrate on smaller areas of code in the better hope that government would be prepared to make these kinds of reforms
  • In 2015-16 they further reported that they would also only concentrate on areas of law where statutes are incoherent and codification would bring practical benefits
37
Q

What is consolidation?

A

Combining the law from several Acts of Parliament into one Act of Parliament to make the law clearer and shorter

38
Q

Why is consolidation a reform the law commission has stated?

A
  • Needed because there might be several parts of different statutes that spell out the entire law
  • Consolidation makes the law easier to understand and more accessible
  • Constant changes to the law on criminal justice and sentencing are a good example of the need for consolidation
  • In 2017, the Law Commission published a new draft sentencing code
39
Q

What is ‘Repeal’?

A

The Act ceases to be law. Only Parliament can repeal an Act of Parliament

40
Q

How has the Law Commission been successful in the reform of repeal?

A

By 2015 there had been 19 Statute Law (Repeals) Acts
- Over 3,000 out-of-date Acts of Parliament have been completely repealed
- In addition, parts of thousands of other Acts have also been repealed

41
Q

What have been 4 important reforms made in recent years?

A
  • Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which made corporations and organisations criminally liable for deaths caused by their working practices
  • Coroners and Justice Act 2009, which abolished the defence to murder of provocation and replaced it with the defence of loss of control
  • Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which includes reform of contempt of court by jurors and the creation of new offences of juror misconduct in relation to using the internet
  • Consumer Rights Act 2015, which gives consumers the legal right to reject faulty goods and the right to a refund if they act within a reasonable time
42
Q

What are the advantages of reform through the Law Commission?

A
  • Research by legal experts
  • Non-political
  • Consultation before finalising proposals
  • Whole areas of law can be considered
  • If Parliament decides to act on its advice and reforms whole areas of the law, it makes it easier to find and understand
  • Reform simplifies/ modernises the law
43
Q

What are the disadvantages of reform through the Law Commission?

A
  • Parliament can be slow at enacting Law Commission reports
  • Sometimes a lack of parliamentary time
  • Whilst the government might agree in principle with reform of the law, it may not follow all the recommendations and this can lead to problems

Law Mock 2024 (5 decks)

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