influences on the law

• who / what influences the law?

  Government, Parliament, Judicial influence, pressure groups, media & public opinion, inquiries
• what are the other reform agencies? 


  e- petitions, international obligations
• what does the government use to influence law / say their plans

  manifestos
• what is a manifesto

  a public declaration of principles, policies, intentions, finances
• are the gov legally bound by their manifestos?


  no
• how can parliament influence the law? 


  • create / amend laws
  • repeals laws
  • codification
  • consolidation
• what is codification? 


  bringing together acts & case law
• what is the example for codification? 


  police & criminal evidence act 1984
• what is consolidation? 


  bringing together acts to make one act
• give the example for consolidation 


  equality act 2010 brought together 116 separate acts
• how do judges make changes to the law? 


  statutory interpretation & creation of original precedent
• give examples of statutory interpretation & original precedent 


  RvR, Quantavalle, Donoghue v Stevenson, Lord coke's murder definition etc
• what are pressure groups? 


  organisations formed to influence public policy & decision-making in specific areas
• what tactics do pressure groups use? 


  Lobbying MPs, strikes, marches / protests, petitions, writing to local MPs, boycotting products, advertising leaflets / posters, gaining media publicity
• what is lobbying MPs? 


  attempting to get an MP on your side
• what was the snowdrop campaign pressure group? 


  raised awareness around dangers of using guns & promoting gun control
• what did media pressure help gain a judicial inquiry for? 


  The killing of stephen lawrence
• give an example of an act that was brought in after high publication in the media?

  Dangerous dogs act 1991
• how did the media influence this law being brought in? 


  they published several dog attacks
• what did the news of the world campaign help do?

  helped create sarah's law after sarah payne's murder
• what is sarah's law? 


  allows parents & guardians to find out whether a child sex offender lives nearby
• what is an inquiry? 


  a one-off temporary committee that is set up to investigate in response to a significant tragedy or event
• what do the committees set up for an inquiry do? 


  investigate & examine the causes of event so lessons can be learnt
• give some examples of inquiries 


  Litvinenko inquiry (2016), Stephen lawrence inquiry (1999), shipman inquiry (2005)
• when did the government set up the e-petition website? 


  2011
• what does the e-petition website allow people to do? 


  members of the public can set up a petition on any issue
• what happens once a petition reaches 10,000 signatures?


  the government will respond
• what happens when an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures?


  the government will consider it for debate in parliament
• what are our international obligations? 


  we may still consider EU laws, we are member of the council of Europe, we are member of united nations, NATO, and International monetary fund
• what acts & cases came from the UK being a member of the council of Europe?

  Human rights act 1998, Gender recognition act 2004, Goodwin v Uk 2002