6.5 Bills and the Scottish Parliament Bills in the Scottish Parliament are very similar, in terms of layout, structure and the conventions of legislative drafting, to Bills of the UK Parliament. This is primarily because the Acts of the Scottish Parliament (ASPs) to which they are intended to give rise form part of the UK ‘statute book’ alongside existing statute law. The stages of a Bill through the Scottish Parliament will depend on a number of factors, as not all Bills follow the same process. The difference bet
6.3 Overview of the stages of a Bill Section 29 of the Scotland Act 1998 provides: ‘An Act of the Scottish Parliament is not law so far as any provision of the Act is outside the legislative competence of the Parliament.’ This means that the Scottish Parliament does not have power to legislate for England, Wales or Northern Ireland on reserved matters, and cannot create legislation which is incompatible with EU law or
6.2 The limits of legislative competence Before devolution, all Bills affecting Scotland were introduced in, and subject to the procedures of, the UK Parliament. Some of those Bills were limited in extent to Scotland, while others applied to the whole of the United Kingdom (although often with some distinct provisions applicable only to Scotland). You can learn more about the procedures for the UK Parliament in Section 7 of this unit. Section 28(1) of the Scotland Act
Next steps After completing this unit you may wish to study another OpenLearn Study Unit or find out more about this topic. Here are some suggestions:
7 Review of the unit's learning outcomes After studying this unit you should be able to:
Part A
describe what is meant by a formal rule identify a formal rule describe the problems associated with rule making.
Part B
describe the relevance of policy for rule making recognise differing reactions to Ireland's ban on smoking in the workplace demo
6.3 The relationship between making, interpreting and applying rules Although the processes of making, interpreting and applying rules can be explored separately, as we have done in this unit, it is important to realise that they are all part of one larger process. A new rule is often made because the interpretation and application of an existing rule does not solve the problems which that rule now has to confront. In turn, that new rule may be drafted in such a way that its interpretation leads to consequences that were unintended by the rule-maker, and the p
6.2 Applying other people's rules The process of interpretation is very closely related to that of application. The reason is simple – before applying a rule, the person applying it must interpret it to see whether the conduct in question is one to which the rule applies. Sometimes this will be straightforward, and sometimes not, as will be seen in Activity 7. The purpose of this activity is to provide you with an opportunity to explore the different ways in
6.1 Introduction We have now looked at how formal rules are formulated, and at some of the strategies that may be deployed when interpreting them. In this part we will take this one step further and explore in more detail something that we have already touched on and thought about – the application of rules. This is a really important thing to understand, since rules are designed to regulate conduct, and have to be applied to instances of the conduct with which they are concerned. 5.3 Summary of Part D After studying Part D you should be able to: explain the difficulties of interpreting written statements; explain what is meant by indeterminacy; explain what is meant by interpretive strategies; describe the literal approach to interpretation; describe the approach to interpretation which seeks to avoid absurdity; describe the approach to interpretation which looks t 5.2.3 Looking at the intention of the rule-maker To resolve these problems, a rule-applier may adopt a yet broader interpretive strategy. This involves attempting to work out what the intention of the rule-maker was when the rule was formulated. In other words, it means going beyond or outside the language of the rule itself. In the context of a statute (i.e. an Act of Parliament), this may involve the rule-applier (the judge) looking at the law that existed before the statute was enacted and working out what the problem with that la 5.2.2 Avoiding absurdity One such strategy is to be as true to the literal meaning as is possible but to ensure, so far as the words allow, an interpretation which avoids absurdity. In the case of the rule I have just set out, this would mean an interpretation which ensured that only those customers who had caused breakages were obliged to pay for them. This approach works well in most cases, but not always. Take, for example, another rule posted up in a shop selling china and glass:
Author(s): 5.2.1 A literal approach One way in which we can interpret a rule is by treating it literally. Very simply this means looking at the words which comprise the rule, and at the way in which they are put together, and applying the rule ‘as is’ to a factual situation to which it applies. An example would be: ‘Dog owners are not permitted to let their dogs off the lead in the park’. If this is applied literally, it would mean that a person who did not own a dog, but who took a friend's dog to the park, w 5.1 Introduction We have seen some of the difficulties that Mrs Biggs has faced when formulating a sufficiently general and sufficiently specific rule to deal with the conduct of the visitors to her garden. In Part D we take things a step further by looking at some of the difficulties which may arise when it comes to interpreting rules such as the one developed (with your help) by Mrs Biggs. In particular, we will be exploring the way in which our understanding of the language used in rules affects our interp 4.2 Formulating rules Activity 4 should have shown you that the language used for making rules can sometimes make them difficult to understand. Given that we can only comply with a rule if we know what it means, this is a big problem! In this part of the unit we are going to look at the process of making rules in more detail – and you are going to have the opportunity to make a rule that can be understood and which is effective in achieving what it sets out to do. It is worth restating that rules are made 4.1 Introduction We have looked at the way in which policy informs the development of rules, and you have had an opportunity to develop your reasoning skills by applying your understanding of a set of rules to some factual situations. One of the issues which came out of Part B was that sometimes in applying rules the language in which the rules are written makes it difficult to know exactly what is meant. In Part C we will be looking at this problem in a little more detail. In particular, we will be looking a 3.4 Summary of Part B After studying Part B you should be able to: describe the relevance of policy for rule making; recognise differing reactions to Ireland's ban on smoking in the workplace; demonstrate/explain the implications of the rules governing Ireland's ban on smoking in the workplace. Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see Author(s): 3.3 The Irish anti-smoking law You now know what the Irish Government's arguments for introducing the smoking ban were, and have read some of the reactions to it. We are now going to turn to the law itself. The passage I want you to read is from the Irish Government Public Services website and explains the new law in simple language. Read the passage in Box 4 carefully and answer the questions in the activity which follows. The questions ask you to interpret the rules, something we will be looking at in more detail later i 3.2 The policy behind Ireland's ban on smoking in the workplace In order to explore these issues, we are going to look at the introduction of a rule in the Republic of Ireland – the ban on smoking in places where people work which was introduced in 2004. What I would like you to do first is to think about your own position on this subject. The purpose of the next activity is to provide you with an opportunity to think about your own attitudes to a particular kind of behaviour which many people feel should be subject to legal control. It is useful to wor 3.1 Introduction Formal rules do not just appear from nowhere! In this part we will be exploring how such rules are the product of a process of policy making. As an example, we will be using the Irish Government's policy on banning smoking in the workplace, and the law which arose out of this policy. Part B will also provide you with an opportunity to apply some of the reasoning skills you have been developing by applying your understanding of the Irish law to some factual situations. One of the most ob Summary of Part A After studying Part A you should be able to: describe what is meant by a formal rule; identify a formal rule; describe the problems associated with rule making. Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Author(s):
