3.3 Procedure by which Bills become law In order to become an Act of Parliament a Bill will have to be passed by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. A Bill may start in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, with the exception of Finance Bills which always start in the House of Commons. A Finance Bill is introduced by the Government shortly after the Budget to bring the Government's tax proposals into law. Before a Bill can become an Act of Parliament it must undergo a number of stages.
2.9 (v) Private Members' Bills Individual Members of Parliament have the power to introduce their own legislation known as a Private Members' Bill. An example of a successful Private Members' Bill which became law is the Marriage Act 1994 introduced by Gyles Brandreth who was MP for Chester at the time. This Act allows people to marry in any registered place, not just a Register Office or religious building. Private Members' Bills may be the result of an MP being approached for support for a proposal put forward by particu
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-
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
1.2 Balancing the right to privacy and other rights Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects freedom of expression. Section 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998 requires the courts in the UK to have particular regard to the importance of the right to freedom of expression. However, freedom of expression and the right to privacy frequently collide. This can be illustrated by reference to the American case of Anonsen v Donohue (1993). In this case a woman revealed on national television that her husband had raped and impr
Introduction Privacy has long been recognised as one of the important human rights and this is reflected in religion and history. There are, for example, references to privacy in the Qur'an, the Bible and Jewish law. Privacy was also protected in classical Greece and ancient China. The protection of privacy is seen as a way of drawing the line to indicate how far society can intrude into a person's affairs. Privacy encompasses an individual's liberty to choose how they lead their lives, freedom from
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
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Acknowledgements The following material is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:
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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
3.4 How does the EU operate? The EU operates through institutions created in the treaties. These institutions can have decision-making powers, law-making powers or may act as part of a checking and consultation procedure. The institutions include: The European Parliament (represents the people of the EU). The Council of the European Union (represents the member states of the EU). The European Commission (represents the interests of the EU).
2.5 The ECHR and UK law OpenLearn unit W100_5 Human rights and the law will explore the Human Rights Act 1998 and its effect and relationship with the ECHR. It is important to remember that both states and individuals can bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights (although some countries have tried to bring restrictions on an individual's right to do so). An individual must have first exhausted all remedies in their own domestic legal system. Both the court and the application procedure differs from that i
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
4.2.2 Private reports (1535–1865) These reports bear the name they do because they were produced by private individuals and are cited by the name of the person who collected them. They were, however, published commercially for public reference. An ongoing problem with the private reports relates to their accuracy. At best, it can be said that some were better, that is, more accurate, than others. Of particular importance among the earlier reports were those of Plowden, Coke and Burrows, but there are many other reports that a
3.6.1 Try some yourself 1 The population of a village is 5481. Round this: (a) to the nearest thousand people; (b) to the nearest hundred people. 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 × 3.4 Did I make a rough estimate to act as a check? When using a calculator many people have ‘blind faith’ in its capacity to provide the correct result. Calculators invariably provide the co 1.6 Significant figures for numbers less than one You can use the same procedure for numbers less than one. In scientific work people deal with very small units of measurement. Suppose you read that the spacing between adjacent atoms in a solid was 0.000 002 456 84 metres. You could make the number more memorable by using two sign 1.5.1 Try some yourself 1 Round 2098 765 (a) to 1 s.f. (b) to 2 s.f. (c) to 3 s.f. (d) to 4 s.f. 1.4.1 Try some yourself 1 Round a measurement of 1.059 metres: (a) to the nearest whole number of metres; (b) to two decimal places;
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