AC1.1 - Processes Used For Law Making

• What are the two main sources of law?

  Governmental Processes and Judicial Processes
• What are governmental processes?

  Statutes - Acts of parliament or legislation created by parliament
• What are judicial processes?

  Judge made laws (common law - law must be common in all cases, applied consistently)
• What is a green paper? (pre-legislative procedure)


  A consultative document where interested parties are invited to put forward their views on the draft legislation
• What is a white paper? (pre-legislative procedure)


  It sets out the intended aims of the legislation, then put forward in its draft form as a bill which can be introduced to either house of parliament
• What is a public bill? (introducing an act of parliament)


  These are bought either by the government as a whole or as an individual MP (private members bills), public bills generally affect the whole country
• What is a private bill? (introducing an act of parliament)


  These are bought by an outside group which can only affect a certain area of the country
• What are the parliamentary stages of a bill?

  • First Reading
  • Second Reading
  • Committee Stage
  • Report Stage
  • Third Reading
  • The Lords
  • Royal Assent
• What is the first reading?

  Government first introduces the bill into the Commons (occasionally the Lords), a formal announcement of the bill and it is followed by a vote
• What is the second reading?

  The bill’s main principles are considered and debated by the whole House of Commons and a vote is taken, if they win the vote then the bill moves on
• What is the committee stage?

  The bill is examined in detail by a small committee of MPs from different parties, then it is reported back to the whole house and will often propose amendments
• What is the report stage?

  Gives MPs the opportunity to consider the committee‘s report and to debate and vote on any amendments
• What is the third reading?

  The final chance for the Commons to debate contents, no amendments allowed, they vote to pass or reject it
• What is the Lords stage?

  The bill goes to the House of Lords where it goes through the same process as in the Commons
• What is the royal assent?

  The monarch’s agreement to make the bill into an act of parliament or law and is a formality
• A commencement order is when an act specifies that it will only apply from a later date
• What is judicial precedent?

  The practice of using previous court decisions as a basis for deciding current cases