As the House of Commons consists of 646 elected MP’s, they are a body which the public has elected into place; as such they are able to represent the public opinion through the laws passed.
Acts of Parliament can be expedited through the processes if there is a public outcry, like the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, or in the event of national crisis or emergency Anti-terrorism, crime and security act 2001, which came into force on the 1st December 2001, less than 3 months after the September 11th attacks in America.
All Acts have the ability to be changed in the future under the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty. An elected parliament does not have the right to pass any law which cannot be altered or undone in the future. An example of a such a case is, R v R [1992] 1 AC 599. The change in the act acknowledged the feasibility of rape occurring during a marriage.
Disadvantages;
Some disadvantages of Law making in parliament will correspond with the advantages of secondary legislation (delegated legislation), for example, Law making in Parliament to make its way through the processes and receive the royal assent, can be a time consuming process.
Whereas in regards to delegated legislation, the processes to introduce and Act takes much less time for example, The Export and Movement Restrictions (Foot-and-Mouth Disease) (No.2) Regulations 2007, which came into effect on the 5th of December 2007 and was only made an hour earlier.
Although there is an intense level of scrutiny when an act is going through all of the stages, if the act is on a very specific or local subject matter, the expertise within Parliament will undoubtedly not be as strong than if the authority were to be passed on to a specific body to make the law under delegated legislation for example bylaws created by a local authority, an example of this kind is the Railway byelaws made under Section 219 of the transport act 2000.
The House of Commons is made up of publically elected MP’s, however the House of Lords does not consist of publically elected members and as such the disadvantage this has is that the public only have influence over half of the law making committee.
Due to the wording of some statutes, the meaning of the law is not always as clear as would be hoped for, for example Dangerous Dogs act 1991, there was confusion over the terminology “type” and whether it meant the same as “breed”
Conclusion;
There are many advantages and disadvantages to law making in parliament; however the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. We have in the UK is a true democracy and as the House of Commons is publically elected there is also a very high level of accountability and efficiency which would not compare to anywhere else if our law making did not take place in Parliament.
Question 3
Before the mid-13th century all law was based on a principle of precedent whereby any decisions from any earlier cases in higher courts bind any lower courts to those decisions previously made, precedents are still a very important part of our judicial system.
Courts higher up within the UK court Hierarchy do not have to follow any precedents made by lower courts; however any precedents which have been created will still be taken into account.
The doctrine of precedent has advantages to offer, one of the strongest advantages the principle has is the consistency and fairness, as there is no one judge making the overall ruling of the case, the decision is far more aligned to the democracy of our common law system.
When laws are created by parliament, there is awareness that there are too many possible situations to include in one statue, although they attempt to be as comprehensive as possible there will always be moments of uncertainty where further interpretation will be required.
A judge’s role will be deciding which path to take when looking at statutory interpretation. The two rules most commonly referred to are the literal rule, where the statue is taken in context word for word, an example of this rule being used is the case of Fisher v Bell [1960] 3 All ER 731. The second most commonly used rule of interpretation is the Purposive Approach, whereby this rule looks at the original act and makes a decision on what they (judges) believe parliament mean to achieve when they put this act through. This is also the most commonly used rule is due to the fact that the EU laws must now be taken into consideration by all courts. The purposive approach is required to be used in any EU Law.
There are two further rules which are also used in regards to statutory interpretation, the golden rule is an adaption to the literal rule and is used to avoid any ludicrous result that the Literal rule may cause. An example of the Golden Rule being used in a case, Re Sigsworth [1935] Ch89.
Also the Mischief rule, which looks at the statue before the law now in place and requests the court to make an educated decision on what the gap the new law now intended to cover.
In regards to statutory interpretation the judge making the decision does indeed decide on the more intricate details of the law, only an adaption as to how the law is interpreted.
Some judges form decisions around the law and the interpretation which could be transpired to be creating law, as the decisions made within that case do need to be followed as a form of precedent.
In conclusion the information shows that Judges before the mid-13th century did create the law, since the UK Parliament came into effect the judges to this day no longer make the law we form our everyday lives to, but yet give an interpretation within the boundaries they have been given to allow for a fairer, more efficient judiciary system.
Word Count:
1499 words
Bibliography:
The Open University (2011), Assessment Guide Part 2, Milton Keynes, The Open University (Printed).
The Open University (2011), Block W100, Unit 3, Making Law: Parliament, Milton Keynes, The Open University (Printed). Authors Raymond Arthur et al
The Open University (2011), Block W100, Unit 4, Making Law: Common Law, Milton Keynes, The Open University (Printed). Authors Carol Howells et al
The Open University (2011), Block W100, Unit 5, Making Law: Europe, Milton Keynes, The Open University (Printed). Authors Jane Goodey et al
