1.1 The constitution The UK has a common law legal system. It is very difficult to give a simple definition of the legal system in the UK, but you may find it helps to think of it as the system that covers how all civil and criminal laws are made, used and enforced. A fundamental part of any legal system is its Author(s):
Introduction In this unit you will have the opportunity to look at some of the constituent parts of the legal system in the UK. You will also consider how laws are made and who is responsible for enforcing them. Finally, you will have an opportunity to experiment with different ways of taking notes. This unit is from our archive and is an adapted extract from the Open University course Starting with Law (Y166), which is no longer in presentation. If you wish to study formally with The Open Un
7 Review of unit learning outcomes After studying this unit, you should be able to: explain how Acts of Parliament originate: Â party manifestos, national emergency or crisis, Royal Commissions, the Law Commission, Private Members' Bills discuss the process by which rules become law and the role of Parliament in making legal rules: Â first reading, second read
6.1 Influences on the law-making process In Part E I will discuss the influence of pressure groups in the rule-making process and assess the role that citizens can have in influencing the laws Parliament makes. As you have seen already, most Acts of Parliament are the outcome of the policy decisions taken by Government and the actual policies pursued will depend upon the political goals of that Government. Most Acts result from Government Bills sponsored by the relevant Minister. Education legislation, for example, will be int
4.9 The control of delegated legislation You may have been surprised to read that through delegated legislation an enormous amount of law is made every year outside of the democratically elected parliamentary process and therefore this law is being made by non-elected people. There are, however, certain safeguards to ensure that delegated legislation is controlled by way of both parliamentary and judicial control.
4.8 Professional regulations Certain professional bodies, such as The Solicitors Regulation Authority, have delegated authority under enabling legislation to regulate the conduct of their members. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has power to control the conduct of practising solicitors under the Solicitors Act 1974. The General Medical Council regulates the conduct of its members under the Medical Act of 1858. It has four main functions: to keep up-to-date registers of qualif
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.
3,3,7 Royal Assent You have already seen references to Royal Assent in this unit. The monarch formally assents to a Bill in order for it to pass into law. Royal Assent has never been withheld in recent times. Queen Anne was the last monarch to withhold a Royal Assent, when she blocked a Scottish Militia Bill in 1707. The Queen feared a Scottish militia might be turned against the monarchy. Since the sixteenth century no monarch has actually signed a Bill themselves. Instead, the monarch signs what are kno
2.10 Summary of Part A In Part A we have examined the various ways in which Acts of Parliament may originate: Party manifestos National emergency, crisis or new development Royal Commissions The Law Commission Private Members' Bills.
3.5 Review of learning outcomes Decide for yourself, by working through the table below, whether you have satisfied the learning outcomes for Part B. 3.1 Key themes and learning outcomes The key themes of Part B are: business mediums; sole trader; partnership or firm; assets and liabilities. After studying Part B, you should be able to: identify the main types of business medium; demonstrate an understanding of the key characteristics of businesses run as sole traders; demonstrate an understanding of the 2.5 Review of learning outcomes Decide for yourself, by working through the table below, whether you have satisfied the learning outcomes for Part A. 7.2 Preparing and drafting a Bill A period of preparation of a Bill allows time to scrutinise evidence on the policies underlying Bills, and to consider whether Bills can be improved before they are introduced. Proper preparation of a Bill should lead to better-informed debates on Bills when they are introduced, and may save time by identifying problems at an early stage. This period of pre-legislative scrutiny allows valuable time for consideration, and therefore helps to avoid introducing laws that are unworkable. Consultat 7.1 Reserved and devolved matters As stated earlier, the UK Parliament can still legislate on reserved matters and also on devolved matters, with the agreement of the Scottish Parliament. This section looks at the law making process at Westminster. It is a very different process, which involves both the Houses of the Westminster Parliament. An Act of the UK Parliament also starts off as a Bill, which, if approved by a majority in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, will become an Act of the Westminster Parliame 2 What is law? This section will look at what we mean when we refer to ‘law’. What is ‘law’, how do we know it exists and how is it defined? The ‘law’ is rarely out of the news and is often the focus for fictional drama, whether it is a television show depicting a police investigation, or one involving solicitors and advocates. It is something that touches our lives on a daily basis, it governs what we can and cannot do, it is used to settle disputes, to punish and to govern. There are law 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 Introduction This unit is designed as an introduction to the academic study of the concept of rules, but will also serve as an introduction to a variety of different writing styles that are used in the academic world. It will challenge you to think about why some statements are rules and some are not, and what it is that distinguishes rules from habits and customs. It also looks at more formal rules and how such rules are applied and enforced. Rules shape our lives because they set out what we may and may 3.1 The idea of law As with social work, our ideas about law are shaped through a series of images and encounters, and these affect our expectations of law as an area of study. They also have an impact on our reaction to legal intervention, which we have seen is relevant to social work practice. 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 2.3 Summary of part B There is no right to privacy in UK law. Individuals who allege an invasion of privacy rely on one of the following: breach of the right to confidence, which is a common law right; Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. To succeed in an action for ‘breach of the right to confidence’ you would have to prove: that the information had the necessary ‘quality of
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I am sufficiently confident in my understanding to enable me to move on, but I am aware that I need to revisit the material later.
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I am sufficiently confident in my understanding to enable me to move on, but I am aware that I need to revisit the material later.
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