9.2 Marking up a text Although you might not think of this as note-taking, marking the text as you read can be a very useful part of the note-taking process. You can do this by using a highlighter pen, by underlining key points or by making notes in the margin. However, try not to overdo it and only highlight important points.
8 Magistrates Magistrates have been a part of the English legal system since the Justice of the Peace Act 1361. Their main role has always been in the criminal justice system. There are now over 30,000 magistrates (also known as Justices of the Peace) hearing over one million criminal cases per yea
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
4.13.2 Sub-delegation Connected to the accountability issue is the problem that the authority vested in Parliament to make law is delegated away from Parliament, possibly through a number of ‘layers’, for example, to a Government minister and then to a department and then possibly again to a group of experts. The Trafalgar Square byelaw (see Activity 9) was made by The Mayor
4.12.1 Time Delegated legislation is far quicker to introduce than an Act of Parliament. This can be an advantage in instances when emergencies or unforeseen problems require laws to be changed. The use of delegated legislation also saves parliamentary time. The detail of the delegated legislation can be dealt with by the appropriate minister, leaving Parliament as a whole more time to focus on the general principles of the enabling Act.
4.11.1 Procedural ultra vires This is where the enabling Act sets out the procedural rules to be followed by the body which has been given the delegated power. The court can find the delegated legislation to be ultra vires and void if these rules were not followed. In the Aylesbury Mushroom case (1972) Agricultural Horticultural and Forestry Industry Training Board v Aylesbury Mushrooms Ltd (1972) 1 All ER 280 delegated legislation required the Minister of Labour to consult ‘any organisation … appe
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.
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 non-
3.2 Forms of business organisation, or ‘business mediums’ If you were to carry on the business described in Activity 2, you would be carrying on business on your own. You would be what is called a ‘sole trader’. We will look at the consequences of being a sole trader in a little bit more detail in this section. However, not all businesses are run by sole traders. There are several different ways in which
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
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
5 Review of the learning outcomes This unit discussed the meaning of privacy and what a right to privacy protects. Privacy has variously been defined as: the right to be left alone; freedom from interruption, intrusion, embarrassment or accountability; control of the disclosure of personal information; protection of the individual's independence, dignity and integrity; secrecy, anonymity and solitude; the right to protection from intrusion into your personal life. The
Acknowledgements The following material is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit: Figure 1 © UN Photo Library; Figure 2 Photo: © Co
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3.1 Part B overview The European Convention on Human Rights was introduced in unit W100_4 Europe and the law, and through your previous studies you have probably already considered cases (such as that of Diane Pretty) where articles of the European Convention on Human Rights were under debate. Here you will look at its legal implications in more detail. You will consider how the European Convention on Human Rights came into being, why it was considered necessary to create such an instrument, what are its
Introduction This unit considers the growth of human rights and humanitarian law before looking at the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in detail. It will also look at the position of human rights in the UK and the effect of the Human Rights Act 1998. This unit is an adapted extract from the course Rules, rights and justice: an introduction to law
(W100)
The relationship between the EC and the EU The words ‘European Economic Community’ (EEC), ‘European Community’ (EC) and ‘European Union’ (EU) have already been used in this unit, and many texts and journal and newspaper articles use them interchangeably. It is important that you are clear on their relationship and what they mean. This unit will always refer to the current position as the EU, but what is the relationship between the EC, the EEC and the EU? As mentioned earlier, the Maastricht Treaty (1992) established
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.
6.4 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
3.4.1 Try some yourself 1 For each of the following calculations make suitable rough estimates before doing the calculation on your calculator and check the result. (a) 22.12 ÷ 4.12 (b) 0.897 ×
