1.1

• How is the law made

  1. Ideas for bills come from

  2. Government

  3. Bill

  4. House of Lords

  5. Law
• Green paper


  Initial report to provoke public discussions, often includes questions for individuals and organisations to respond to
• White paper


  Document that sets out detail on the government's plans for legislation, often includes a draft version of the bill they intend to put before parliament
• Democracy


  Governed by the people
• Who gets to vote in the UK

  • Anyone over the age of 18
• Three parts of Parliament

  • House of commons
  • House of Lords
  • Monarch
• House of Commons


  Made up of 646 elected members, represent each section of the UK, elected by a general election
• House of Lords


  Experts from outside the life of politics, Life Peers, look at the small print
• Government


  Invited by the monarch to form a government if they have won in a general election
• Cabinet


  Junior and Senior ministers
• Parliament's role in relation to the Government
• The UK is a parliamentary democracy meaning most laws are made by passing Acts of parliament also referred to as statutes or legislation
• The monarch only has a formal role, giving agreement to a new law
• A bill can skip the committee stage if believed to be an emergency
• Judicial Precedent


  Past decisions of judges create law for future judges to follow
• Stare decisis


  Standing by, or following what judges have decided in previous cases
• Judicial Precedent


  • Creates consistency and fairness in the legal system
  • Much of the law of the land has been developed from following the decisions made in earlier cases
  • Helps to create a single set of laws that apply to the whole country
• Distinguishing


  The precedent from an earlier case is only applicable to a current case if the legal principle involved is the same and if the facts are similar
• Overruling


  When a court higher up the hierarchy rules that a previous court was wrong
• Literal rule


  Judges should use everyday meanings of the words in the statues
• Golden rule


  Allows the court to enforce what the statute intended to achieve rather than what it actually says
• Mischief rule


  Allows the court to enforce what the statute intended to achieve rather than what it actually says
• Statutory Interpretation


  • Whiteley V Chappell (1868)
  • Adler V George (1964)
  • R V Maginnis (1987)
  • Corkery V Carpenter (1951)