suhails Flashcards
what is the difference between legal and non-legal rules?
legal rules are created by law-making bodies, such as courts and parliament, and are enforced by the law. non-legal rules are created by individuals or groups, such as families, schools, sporting clubs, and religious denominations.
why do we need laws?
Laws are needed to ensure that all members of society can work together without hurting or harming each other.
What are the principles of justice?
Equality, Fairness and Access.
Who are two groups of people other than “The Young” who may need laws to protect them because they are unable to protect themselves?
The elderly and the disabled.
What are the characteristics of an effective law?
The law must be known, The law must be easily understandable, The law must reflect values and be accepted, The law must be able to adapt to changes, The law must be stable and consistent.
What is Fairness?
Whether the court has followed the correct rules and applied the law appropriately the right to assistance from a legal representative, The right to appeal to a higher authority if there is a perceived injustice.
What is equality?
Rules should apply to both parties in a balanced way. All people are equal before the law. Legal representatives should be available to both parties.
What is access?
That people should be aware of their legal right to resolve a dispute through a court or other mechanisms for dispute resolution.
What is the Australian constitution?
A document that sets out the legal structure of parliament and its law-making authority.
When did the commonwealth of Australia come into operation?
1 Jan 1901.
What did the Australia constitution act establish?
Division of powers, separation of powers.
What is the DOP?
The commonwealth government will look after issues of a national interest. The state government would deal with state issues.
Into what categories does the Australian constitution, Commonwealth and state law making powers fall into?
Specific, exclusive, concurrent, and residual powers.
What are specific powers?
Only the Commonwealth parliament has the power to make laws that are specifically mentioned in the constitution and concern the nation as a whole, such as defence and immigration.
What are Exclusive powers?
Only the commonwealth parliament can use them such as defence, printing money and immigration.
What are Concurrent powers?
These powers may be shared by the commonwealth parliament and the state parliament such as taxation and marriage.
What are residual powers?
The state parliaments have their own law-making power and the commonwealth parliament is prohibited from making laws in these areas. Areas of law making such as criminal law, road laws, civil law.
What is SOP?
The separation of powers is made up by the Parliament, executives and judiciary and it helps ensure that no group has all the power by giving each group their own area of responsibility.
Parliament?
Makes and changes the law.
Executive?
Puts the law into action.
Judiciary?
interpret the law
Bicameral structure?
The structure of both state and federal parliaments.
Government:
Party holding the majority of seats in the lower house.
Governor-general:
Crown representative at the federal level.
Governor:
The Crown’s representative at the state level.
what is the role of parliament?
the role of parliament is to pass laws in the form of Acts, legislation or statute
what are the 9 parliaments in Australia?
one commonwealth, six state parliament and 2 territory parliaments.
what can parliaments do?
Parliaments make, change, repeal previous legislation, or override common law
what are the sources of law?
laws made by parliament which is called statute law and law made by judges known as common law.
where do ideas from laws come from?
ideas for new laws come from many different places such as government , the community, businesses, lobby groups, political parties, the parliament.
what are the two houses of commonwealth parliament called?
the house of reps
(lower house) and the (senate)
what are the two houses of parliament called?
the legislative council(upper house) and legislative assembly (lower house)
what is the role of the house of reps?
Forms government, propose, debate and vote on bills and amendments.
Role of the Senate?
decides matters of national interest, represents the interests of people in their states or territories.
Statutory interpretation?
one of the main features of the relationship between parliament and courts is that parliament creates statutes, and courts interprets them.
Codification of common law?
because parliament is the supreme law-making body, it can make laws that confirm a precedents set in court by passing an Act of Parliament that reinforces the principles established by the court.
Abrogation of common law?
Since parliament is the supreme law-making body it is able to change over ride common law. It does this by passing a law which specifically abrogates or abolishes the common law principle.
Can the courts influence changes in the law by parliament?
Courts can influence changes in the law by parliament through their comments made during court cases.
court hierarchy?
A court hierarchy is a structure of courts within a state or country.
specialisation?
The courts higher in the hierarchy hear more serious and complex cases and the courts lower in the hierarchy hear the less important cases.
Appeals?
The court hierarchy enables any person who is not satisfied with the outcome of a case to appeal to a higher court, to have the ease re-heard.
Doctrine of precedent?
It is a practise whereby decisions of a higher court are binding, and must be followed by all lower courts in the same court hierarchy.
Administrative convenience
increase efficiency in the court system by streamlining the hearing of cases and directing them to particular courts in order to reduce costs and delays.
