Parliamentary Supremacy
The Supremacy of Parliament is still relevant and evident today as it was when A. V. Dicey wrote' the Law of the Constitution' in 1885. Discuss this proposition in light of any developments in the United Kingdom constitution. A.V. Dicey described Parliamentary Supremacy also referred to as sovereignty, in the 'Law of the Constitution, 1885' as meaning; 'Neither more nor less than this, namely, that Parliament thus defined has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatsoever; and further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside legislation of Parliament1. From this three rules can be extracted. Firstly, parliament is the supreme law making body and may enact laws on any subject matter; secondly, no parliament may be bound by a predecessor or bind a successor; and finally no person or body, including a court of law may question the validity of parliament's enactments2. If all three rules are apparent within Parliament, then following Dicey's view there is legal sovereignty. Nevertheless, Dicey did acknowledge that Political sovereignty wasn't held by Parliament, but in fact lay 'with the people'3, and that there may be political restraints that inhibit the exercise of parliamentary power. The first rule, that parliament is the supreme law making body and may enact laws on any
Nigerian Judiciary and the defence of the common man
THE NIGERIAN JUDICIARY AND THE DEFENCE OF THE COMMON MAN In line with the doctrine of separation of powers, which is a cardinal feature of a democratic system, the Nigerian Constitution guarantees the independence of the Judiciary. The doctrine of seperation of power was introduced by French political philosopher, Baron de Montesquieu in order to protect the people from dictatorship or authoritarianism. Under this arrangement, three branches of goverment were formed: the executive, legislature and judiciary. The legislature is responsible for making laws, the executive implements while the judiciary interpretes the laws. It was Madison's system of "Checks and Balances" that would keep the three in check. No one branch would be able to exploit it's power without the scrutiny of one of the other branches. Montesquieu did specify that "the independence of the judiciary has to be real, and not apparent merely". "The judiciary was generally seen as the most important of powers, independent and unchecked", and also considered the least dangerous. That the judiciary all over the world is regarded as the last hope of the common man needs not be over-emphasised. This is why stakeholders in the justice sector often refer to it as a strong fortress, standing sure and strong, providing succour and shelter for the defenceless and vulnerable of the society; a safe haven where the
Equal Opportunities
Equal Opportunities " It is unlawful to treat anyone, on the grounds of sex, less favourably than another person is or would be treated in the same circumstances." That is the argument put forward by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), perhaps the most significant of European Community interventions in the personnel field, created to ensure effective enforcement of the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) and the Equal Pay Act (EPA), and to promote equal opportunities (Donnellan 1994: 1). We discriminate between people in many aspects of our life and work. The selection process in particular directly discriminates between people in order to offer the reward of a job to one but not the other. Certain forms of discrimination are acceptable, others are not, and there are certain groups in our society that are discriminated against unfavourably due to the prejudices and preconceptions of the people with whom they have to deal (Torrington and Hall 1991: 353). Verbalised or not, these preconceived ideas influence the actions of those around them and the effects in employment are very clear. These disadvantaged groups consist of racial minorities, people of different religion, the disabled and more commonly, women. Intentional discrimination is based on a set of clearly expressed beliefs about the differences between people. Ideas that women should not work because their place
Corporate law coursework
LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY BA Accounting & Finance 2008-2009 Year 2 Corporate Law coursework Unit Reference Number: November 2008 First name: Surname: Student number: Group number: Seminar tutor: Contents .Introduction 3 2. a) The purposes for which the share premium account and the revaluation reserves can be used. 4 3. b) Explain the reasons for a public company purchasing or redeeming its own shares. 7 4. c) Assume that the directors wish to redeem all the redeemable shares for £15,000 (the redeemable shares were issued at a premium of £ 2,500) and for the purpose of the redemption issue 5,000 shares of £1 each for £ 6,500, what conditions must be satisfied before the premium to be paid by the company on the redemption issue of the shares can be written off to the share premium account? 1 5. d) Can the entire premium be written off to the share premium account? 3 6. e) Show the revised balance sheet after the shares are redeemed. 4 7. f) If Mirza plc wishes to redenominate the nominal value of some of its shares from sterling to euros, the steps it must take to effect the change. 6 8. References 8 Introduction As the financial accountant employed by Mirza plc., my role is, as requested, to advice the directors of Mirza plc. regarding the purposes of company's reserves, redemption, acquisition of company's own shares, redenomination
Court of Appeal (Criminal Division).
Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Regina v B.T. [2003] Lord Justice Malin, Mr Justice Stevens and Mr Justice Coughlin The defendant, E, a boy aged 12 at the time of the offence, was charged with sexually assaulting his cousin, a 16 year old girl contrary to section 5 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. On 26th February 2004, the appellant was convicted of sexual assault contrary to clause 2 of the Sexual Offences Bill 2003. He appeals against this judgement with the leave of the Full Court. APPEAL from the Crown Court The facts are stated in the opinion of Lord Justice Malin. This is an appeal from the judgement of Heaton J which sets out with care the background to the application and his findings thereon. I will start this judgement by setting out what he said. He said this: "On 16th January 2004 the applicant was accused of sexually assaulting his cousin. The circumstances of this assault were as follows; the appellant, aged 12 years at the time of the assault, is an orphan who attends an all-boys preparatory school run by a strict religious sect and spends the school holidays with his aunt, uncle and cousin F, who is 16 years old. He found a book called "The Joy of Sex" and was intrigued by the anatomical differences between men and women which are shown in the book." "After looking at the pictures in this book, he lifted the skirt of his sleeping cousin and
EU law
Legislation within the European Union can be divided into two categories; Primary legislation and Secondary legislation. Primary Legislation consists of the Treaties; The founding of which being the Treaty of Rome. Treaties succeeding the Treaty amend it. Primary Legislation is only constructed when all Member States at Intergovernmental Conferences agree on the amendments to be made. Secondary Legislation appears in the form of Regulations, Directives, Decisions, Regulations and Opinions. Article 249(1) states; "In order to carry out their task and in accordance with the provisions of this treaty, the European Parliament acting jointly with the Council, the Council and the Commission shall make regulations and issue directives, take decisions, make recommendations or deliver opinions." Regulations are generally applicable and automatically become law in all Member States. Directives, as stated in Article 249 of the EC Treaty, are; "...binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and method." Directives are aimed at Member States and are conditional, unlike Treaty articles which are not. Directives rely on Member States giving affect to them, as the Member States decide how the directive is to be legislated to comply with the objectives of the Community. However,
EU law
There are two forms of EU legislation: primary legislation embodied in the treaties, and secondary legislation in the form of Regulations, Directives and Decisions which are used to implement the policies set out in the treaties.Under Article 226 EC Treaty proceedings will be initiated against Member States by the Commission if they fail to comply with the Community Law obligations There are three possible means in which Bob and Jim can enforce there rights under Community law. These are through direct effect, indirect effect and state liability. Rights can be enforced against different parties through different principles. Direct effect is a basic principle of Community law. Community law not only imposes obligations on individuals but also confers on them rights which they can invoke before national and Community courts. Direct effect differs from direct applicability. Direct applicability means that EC law becomes part of the national law without intervention of Parliament. As a result, Community law is automatically incorporated into national law. Although by virtue of Article 249 only Regulations are specified to be directly applicable, the ECJ has subsequently held that, in certain circumstances, Treaty provisions, Decisions, and Directives can have direct vertical effect as well. Directives are not directly applicable in the UK there is a requirement that member
eu law
In February 2007, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament introduced Directive 2007/15/EC (fictitious) requiring that the use of blackboard chalk should be phased out in educational establishments by September 2008. This is due to the fact that scientific tests have shown that chalk dust can be deemed to be harmful to human health. However, the United Kingdom government does not implement the Directive by the required date, as it is confident that its existing legislation and administrative practices in the field of health and safety sufficiently fulfill the main objectives of the Directive. Recently, Jim, a teacher at a state run school and Bill, a teacher at a private boarding school, have fallen ill due to the blackboard chalk that is still in use at both schools. Advise Jim and Bill as regards their possible rights and remedies under EC law. When discussing Jim and Bill's possible rights we would initially need to establish how Community Law became to be supreme to our statutory instruments. Community Law must be defined through our constitutional system; therefore we are a dualist nation. This dualist system allows there to be two separate sections to our state, which are: Community Law and Westminster Law. These two separate legs of our state often contradict one another; therefore the question arises when these two conflict with one another. The initial
employment law
Written Statement of Terms Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires the employer to give the employee a written statement of employment. The employment contracts depend on a mixture of verbal and written evidence and failing that the court or tribunal may be willing to infer agreement on certain points. An employee must be given, within two months of starting work, a written statement which contains: * the names of the employer and the employee; * the date when the employment began; * the date on which continuous employment began (taking into account any employment with a previous employer which counts towards that period). Section 1 (4) requires that certain particulars of the terms of employment must be stated. These particulars are the rate of pay; the intervals at which it is paid; terms and conditions relating to holidays including public holiday with sufficient information to enable the entitlement to be paid precisely; the title of the job which the employee is employed to do; the place of work; the length of notice which the employee is obliged to give and entitled to receive to determine the contract. If there is a change in the terms of the contract which ought to be included in the statement then a revised written contract must be provided by the employer within one month. Although it does not mean that the employer can not change the terms of
Employment Law
Employment Law 2008/9 Q.2 An economic downturn has far reaching consequences for employers and employees alike, in particular the motor trade is feeling the pinch of our current crisis. In this essay we will advise Barry, the newly appointed Managing Director for Zephyr Autos (ZA), of any legal issues the Company faces as he decides to introduce changes affecting the workforce, the forced redundancy of a sales representative (Albert), and the legality of his dismissal of a Senior Sales Director (Denise) for gross misconduct. The first problem we shall look at is that under pressure from Head Office Barry decides to implement changes to the terms of the contract of employment, including a pay cut without the approval of the UCW, this would mean an abandonment of any collective agreements with the union and a variation to the employment contract of the individual employee's. It is common place in the auto industry where a section of the workforce belong to a union, that the union negotiate provisions such as pay, hours and holiday, intended to be included in the contracts of the employees who are covered1. The first issue we will examine are the rules of collective agreements, the legality of which is defined by s.179(1) TULRCA 19922states: A collective Agreement shall be conclusively not to have been intended by the parties to be a legally enforceable contract unless the
