AC 1.1 DESCRIBE THE PROCESSES USED FOR LAW MAKING

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Created by
Alexa Driscoll

Cards (13)

  • In the UK, laws are made by passing Acts of Parliament, often referred to as statutes or legislation
  • The Monarch has a formal role in law making, giving royal assent which is their agreement to the law
  • The House of Lords, with about 800 peers including 92 hereditary peers, acts as a double check on new laws
  • The House of Commons is the most important part of parliament, with 650 elected representatives, each representing a constituency
  • The Government, formed by the political party with a majority of the 650 MPs, proposes laws in the form of bills that must be agreed by both houses of parliament and receive royal assent to become acts of parliament
  • The law-making process in the UK Parliament includes stages like Green Paper, White Paper, First Reading, Second Reading, Committee Stage, Report Stage, and Third Reading before the bill goes to the House of Lords and finally receives Royal Assent
  • Judges can make laws through precedent, where they follow decisions of previous cases, creating binding precedents that must be followed in similar cases, unless distinguished or overruled
  • Judges can also make laws through statutory interpretation, applying rules like the literal rule, golden rule, and mischief rule to interpret statutes or Acts of Parliament
  • The UK is a parliamentary democracy
  • Each MP is elected at a general election
  • The Governments job is to run the country and is led by the elected Prime Minister
    • The Criminal Justice Act 2003 – introduced a change to the double jeopardy law 
    • The Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 – introduced mandatory minimum sentences for a range of repeat offences  
    • The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 – this act was rushed, flaws later becoming apparent  
  • Three main interpretation rules  
    • Literal rule – Everyday, ordinary meaning of the words, however, a word can have several meanings e.g., R V Maginnis case involving illegal drugs judges had different interpretations of the word supply  
    • Golden rule – where a judge modifies the literal meaning to avoid an absurd result e.g., Adler V George Adler argued he hadn't broken the literal rule, so court applied the golden rule to avoid an absurd result  
    • Mischief rule – allows the court to enforce what the statute was intended to achieve e.g., Corkey V Carpenter