4.2 The volume of delegated legislation Delegated legislation is a very important source of legislation quite simply because of its volume. There are far more pieces of delegated legislation created each year than Acts of Parliament. For example, in 2005 there were only 24 general public Acts of Parliament passed whereas there were 3,699 Statutory Instruments made. You will learn about Statutory Instruments as one type of delegated legislation. Except for third party materials and otherwise s 2.8 (iv) The Law Commission Another source of legislation is the recommendations of the Law Commission. The Law Commission was created in 1965 in order to review and make recommendations about any areas of the law which the Commission felt to be in need of reform. The Law Commission is responsible for keeping all the law under review with a view to its development and reform. This is not the only body charged with proposing changes to the law, there is also the Law Reform Committee and the Criminal Law Revision Committe 2.7 (iii) Royal Commissions Royal Commissions occasionally report to Parliament with recommendations for legislation which may be taken up as part of the Government's legislative programme. Royal Commissions are advisory committees established by the Government – though formally appointed by the Crown, hence the ‘Royal’ – to investigate any subject the Government sees fit to refer to one. They are often used for non-party political issues, or for issues that a Government wishes to be seen as addressing in a (ii) National emergency, crisis or new development Legislation may be passed because of some national emergency or crisis which emerges during the Government's period in office. For example, the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was introduced to respond to the new situation arising from the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. The aim of the 2001 Act was to cut off terrorist funding, ensure that Government departments and agencies have the power to collect and share information required for countering 5 Conclusion Social work and law are both contested concepts, open to a range of possible meanings, depending on their context and the source of their definition. An understanding of these competing meanings is essential to good professional practice and provides a foundation for examining the relationship between social work and the law which is central to this unit. The relationship between social work and the law is subject to change, as the organisation and delivery of social care services attempts to 3.6 Accountability We have discovered that legal rules and principles are often more flexible than first imagined, but they still set the boundaries of permissible action and create a framework for decision making to which social workers are accountable. We have also seen that accountability is essential if power is to be kept in check and some of the negative effects of discretion are to be avoided. Decisions must be transparent, and the process by which they are made must be fair, reasonable and within legal 1 The importance of law in social work education In this unit you will be asked to reflect on the meanings of both social work and law. You will find that these concepts are open to a range of possible definitions, and that the functions of social work and law can change depending on the practice context. Their meaning is also affected by the perspective from which they are viewed, for example the service user's experience of social work and law will not always match the expectations of the professional, or the perceptions of the general pu 3.3 Summary of part C What the courts have established in the cases we have looked at is not a hard and fast privacy doctrine, but a situation in which each case is decided by individual judges on its particular merits. There is no free-standing right to privacy for individuals to enforce. However, where individuals have a strong countervailing interest to protect, the courts are willing to uphold their right to confidence. Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones successf 6.8 Extrinsic aids Extrinsic aids are matters which may help put an Act into context. Sources include previous Acts of Parliament on the same topic, earlier case law, dictionaries of the time, and the historical setting. In addition, Hansard can now be considered. Hansard is the official report of what was said in Parliament when the Act was debated. The use of Hansard was permitted following the decision in Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart (1993) where the House of Lords accepted that Hansard could be 6.7 Intrinsic aids Intrinsic aids are matters within an Act itself which may help make the meaning clearer. The court may consider the long title, the short title and any preamble. Other useful internal aids may include headings before a group of sections and any schedules attached to the Act. There are also often marginal notes explaining different sections; however, these are not generally regarded as giving Parliament's intention as they will have been inserted after parliamentary debates and are only helpfu 6.6 Rules of language The courts may also choose to look at other words in the statute to ascertain the meaning of specific words. To enable them to do this they have developed a number of rules of language to help make the meaning of words and phrases clear. There are three main rules of language:
Ejusdem generis
This rule states that where there is a list of words which is followed by general words then the general words are limited to the same kind of it 6.5.1 Presumptions When determining the meaning of particular words the courts will make certain presumptions about the law. If the statute clearly states the opposite, then a presumption will not apply and it is said that the presumption is rebutted. The main presumptions are: A presumption against change in the common law. It is assumed that the common law will apply unless Parliament has made it plain in the Act that the common law has been altered. 6.5 The purposive approach This approach has emerged in more recent times. Here the court is not just looking to see what the gap was in the old law, it is making a decision as to what they felt Parliament meant to achieve. Lord Denning in the Court of Appeal stated in Magor and St. Mellons Rural District Council v Newport Corporation (1950), ‘we sit here to find out the intention of Parliament and of ministers and carry it out, and we do this better by filling in the gaps and making sense of the enactmen 6.4 The mischief rule This third rule gives a judge more discretion than either the literal or the golden rule. This rule requires the court to look to what the law was before the statute was passed in order to discover what gap or mischief the statute was intended to cover. The court is then required to interpret the statute in such a way to ensure that the gap is covered. The rule is contained in Heydon's Case (1584), where it was said that for the true interpretation of a statute, four things have to be 6.3 The golden rule This rule is a modification of the literal rule. It states that if the literal rule produces an absurdity, then the court should look for another meaning of the words to avoid that absurd result. The rule was closely defined by Lord Wensleydale in Grey v Pearson (1857) HL Cas 61, who stated: The grammatical and ordinary sense of the words is to be adhered to unless that would lead to some absurdity or some r 6.2 The literal rule Under this rule the judge considers what the statute actually says, rather than what it might mean. In order to achieve this, the judge will give the words in the statute a literal meaning, that is, their plain ordinary everyday meaning, even if the effect of this is to produce what might be considered as an otherwise unjust or undesirable outcome. The literal rule says that the intention of Parliament is best found in the ordinary and natural meaning of the words used. As the legislative dem 6.1 Introduction In this part we will explore the number of rules developed by the courts to assist with the interpretation of a statute. These are: the literal rule the golden rule the mischief rule the purposive approach. These rules each take different approaches to interpretation of a statute. Some judges prefer one rule, while other judges prefer another. Some judges also feel that their role is 5.2 Summary of Part D Part D explored several of the reasons which may result in a word or phrase in an Act of Parliament having an unclear meaning. This was illustrated by a number of examples. Interpretation of those words or phrases becomes a task for the courts. In this role, it can be argued that the courts are involved in the law-making process as they have been required to interpret and define a statute. 5.1 Reasons for unclear meaning The meaning of law in a statute should be clear and explicit, but this is not always achieved. Thus, many of the cases which come before the courts concern a dispute over the meaning of a word or phrase in a statute. In those cases the task of the court is to decide the exact meaning of that particular word or phrase. There are a number of factors which can lead to an unclear meaning.
A broad term – There may be words designed to cover sever 4.4 Summary of Part C In Part C you have learnt that: accurate law reporting allows for legal principles to be collated, identified and accessed; there are many sources of law reports: Year Books (1275–1535), private reports (1535–1865), modern reports (1865 to present), the Law Reports, Weekly Law Reports, All England Law Reports, legal periodicals and newspapers, European Community Reports, DVD-ROMs and legal databases available via the internet.
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