W101 an Introduction to Law

W101Tutorial 32016 presentation

W101 An introduction to law

Tutorial 3: Activities

This tutorial will consolidate your knowledge and understanding of the material in Units 4, 5 and 6, and will assist withyour preparation for TMA 01.

Learning outcomes

Participation in the activities in thistutorial will help you to:

explain the roles played by various individuals and bodies who may instigate legislative proposals
discuss the legislative process in the Westminster Parliament
distinguish between primary and secondary legislation
understand the role of judges in applying the law
understand the rules of statutory interpretation
explain what is meant by the common law system in England and Wales
discuss the hierarchy of the court system and the operation of judicial precedent
explain what is meant by ratio decidendi and obiter dictum
learn from feedback, monitor and reflect on personal progress, identifying strengths and weaknesses.

Activity 1: Sources of law in England and Wales

In Units 4, 5 and 6 you were introduced to the sources of law in England and Wales. This activity will consolidate your knowledge and understanding of those sources and the types of law that they make.

The table below lists the main sources of law in England and Wales.

Your task is to fill in the blank cells in the second and third columns using the two sets of information provided below the table. You should delete each piece of information after you have used it.

In thesecond column, write down the type(s) of law that are produced directly by each source. Some types of law have more than one name, and you should choose all that apply for each row.

In the third column, write the letter of the sentence that applies to that source of law.

Source of law / Type(s) of law / Sentence
Courts
European Union
Government minister, using power delegated from UK Parliament
Local authority, using power delegated from UK Parliament
Privy Council, using power delegated from UK Parliament
Queen and Privy Council, using power delegated from UK Parliament
UK Parliament
Welsh Assembly
(Senedd)

Types of law for second column

Act of Parliament

Bye-law

Case law

Common law

Directive

Judge-made law

Order

Order in Council

Order of Council

Regulation

Regulations

Rules

Statutory instrument

Statute law

Statute in any of 20 devolved fields

Treaty

Sentences for third column

This type of law is made ‘when an ordinary statutory instrument made by a minister would be inappropriate’.

This type of law begins as a Bill that is debated in both Houses of Parliament.

This type of law involves statutory interpretation and judicial precedent.

This type of law comes at the top of the hierarchy of laws in England and Wales.

This type of law may reflect local concerns.

This type of law covers matters such as education and health in one country of the United Kingdom.

The three forms of this type of national law servedifferent purposes.

This type of law usually involves the regulation of professions or professional bodies.

Activity 2: Elections to the United Kingdom Parliament

You will be aware from your study of Unit 4 that seats in the Westminster Parliament are gained bythe candidate who is ‘first past the post’ in each constituency.

The table below shows the percentages of the popular vote and seats in Parliament won by parties in the general elections held between 1997 and 2010. The results for the governing party are printed in bold font and followed by ‘G’.

(i)What do you notice about the relationship between the percentage of votes cast for each party and the percentage of seats gained by that party? Think about the percentages in the context of the word ‘majority’, which means ‘more than half’.

Year / Conservative / Labour / Liberal Democrat / Other parties
1997 / % votes / 30.7 / 43.2 G / 16.7 / 9.4
% seats / 25.0 / 63.4 G / 7.0 / 4.6
2001 / % votes / 31.7 / 40.7 G / 18.3 / 9.3
% seats / 25.2 / 62.7 G / 7.9 / 4.2
2005 / % votes / 32.3 / 35.2 G / 22.1 / 10.3
% seats / 30.7 / 55.1 G / 9.6 / 4.6
2010 (i) / % votes / 36.1 / 29.0 / 23.0 / 11.9
% seats / 47.2 / 39.7 / 8.8 / 4.3

After the 2010 General Election – for the first time for 70 years – no party had won a majority of the seats, so no party could form a government that would be able to ensure that its measures would be passed in Parliament. Immediately after the general election, Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrat party, held lengthy talks with the leaders of both the Conservative and Labour parties. His decision to form a coalition with the Conservative party led to the outcome shown below.

Actual outcome / Conservative-LibDem coalition / Labour / Other parties
2010 (ii) / % votes / 59.1 G / 29.0 / 11.9
% seats / 56.0 G / 39.7 / 4.3

(ii)What would have been the percentages of votes cast and seats gained by the ruling coalition if Nick Clegg had decided to form a coalition with the Labour party instead of the Conservative party?

(iii)Reflect on your answers to questions (i) and (ii). Do you consider that, on balance, the ‘first past the post’ system is preferable to a system of proportional representation? Explain the reasons for your answer.

(iv)Explain, with reasons, whether you agree with the following statement:

‘Citizens of the United Kingdom live in a democratic society.They have the opportunity to vote at a General Election and choose the political party they want to govern the country.This system demonstrates real democracy, as opposed an artificial system which leads to an unfair society.’

Activity 3: The making of a statute

The following 13 sentences describe some of the pre-parliamentary and parliamentary steps in the process of making a fictitious Act: the Drinking Water in Public Buildings Act 2030 (DWPBA 2030).

Number the sentences in chronological order, using ‘1’ to denote the first step, ‘2’ to denote the second step and so on.

The DWPBA 2030 receives the Royal Assent.

Rehana Patel MP wins a ballot to introduce the Drinking Water in Public Buildings Bill (DWPBB) as a Private Member’s Bill.

The DWPBB passes through the report stage in the House of Commons.

The House of Commons votes to pass the DWPBB.

The DWPBA 2030 comes into force.

The DWPBB is has its third reading in the House of Commons.

Apressure group, Save Our Ailing Kidneys (SOAK), begins a social media campaign demanding free drinking water in all public buildings.

The DWPBB has its second reading in the House of Commons.

The DWPBB passes to the House of Lords where it goes through five stages.

The DWPBB has its first reading in the House of Commons.

Rehana Patel MP takes up SOAK’s cause.

The DWPBB passes through the committee stage in the House of Commons.

The House of Lords votes to pass the DWPBB.

Activity 4: The operation of the doctrine of precedent

Identify, giving reasons, which of the stated decisions should be followed in each of the following cases.NB: All the ‘facts’ and ‘law’ in this activity are hypothetical.

Case 1

A Magistrates’ Court is dealing with a defendant who is accused of breaching the Driving Expensive Cars (Mandatory Ludicrous Headgear) Regulations 2004 by driving a Porsche while wearing a plain bluebaseball cap. The Regulations make it illegal to drive a car with a recommended list price of more than £50,000 while not wearing a ludicrous hat.

Decision a) A 2008 decision of the same Magistrates’ Court in which the same man wasacquitted after driving a Porsche while wearing a plain black baseball cap.

Decision b) A 2006 decision of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court which upheld the conviction of a woman who, while wearing a plain blue baseball cap, had driven an Aston Martin.

Case 2

The Civil Division of the Court of Appeal is hearing an appeal against a High Court decision that the agreed sale price of £20,000 for a painting by an up-and-coming young artist includes the frame in which it was displayed when the contract of sale was signed. The painting could be removed from the frame without harming either the painting or the frame. The seller alleges that the frame is worth an additional £3,000. The written contract for the sale does not mention the frame, and the parties agree that they did not discuss the frame when they were negotiating: the buyer assumed that it was included in the price, and the seller assumed that it was not.

Decision a) A 1992 decision of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal in which it was held that the agreed price of a painting does not include the frame unless the frame is specifically mentioned and clearly identified in the written contract.

Decision b) A 1978 decision of the House of Lords in which it was held that the agreed price of a painting includes the frame that the painting was in when the contract was signed unless the contract specifies otherwise.

Case 3

The Chancery Division of the High Court is hearing a claim by a man who is seeking to have his mother’s will declared invalid because she left £3 million to keep her 17-year-old poodle, Mitzi, ‘in the manner to which my darling canine companion has become accustomed’. The will orders that, after the dog has died, the remainder of the £3 million should be changed into £50 notes and burned. There is medical evidence that the man’s mother was not suffering from any identified mental disorder when she wrote her will, and there are no other factors that invalidate the will.

Decision a) A 2010 decision of the Supreme Court in which it was held that a will that is legally valid must be followed, even if: ‘it would appear to all right-thinking people that the testator or testatrix had, to use a vulgar term, “taken leave of his or her senses” when drafting the will’.

Decision b) A 2003 decision of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal in which it was held that a court should disregard any clause in a legally valid will if the clause ‘is contrary to all reason because it leads to the wilful and unnecessary destruction of property’.

[A testator is a man who makes a will. A testatrix is a woman who makes a will.]

Activity5: Reflection on learning

Spend five minutes thinking about how W101 is going so far:

(i)one thing that you are already doing well

(ii)one thing that you need to improve

(iii)how you will approach the improvement you need to make for (ii)

Discuss your plan with one other student. Be prepared to be open and honest about your strengths and weaknesses, and to be receptive and helpful to your colleague.

You will not be asked to share your thoughts about this activity with anyone else within your group.

Activity 6: London and North Eastern Railway Co. v Berriman [1946] AC 278 re-visited

In Unit 5, you read the following summary of this case:

‘Mr Berriman, a railway worker, was knocked down by a train while topping up the oil in the boxes which lubricated the points. A look-out man had not been provided to warn Mr Berriman of the approaching train. His widow claimed compensation under the Railway Employment (Prevention of Accidents) Act 1900 which provided that the railway company were under an obligation to provide a look-out man whenever an employee was engaged in “relaying and repairing” the line.

The House of Lords interpreted the words literally and decided that as Mr Berriman was maintaining the track, rather than “relaying and repairing” it, he was not covered by the Act and his widow was not entitled to compensation.’

You read about three other rules that judges can use when they are interpreting the words of a statute: the golden rule, the mischief rule and the purposive approach and you learned some advantages and disadvantages of each rule.

In the second column of the table below, indicate what you think the court hearing Mrs Berriman’s claim would have decided if it had applied each of these other rules. In the third column, note any uncertainties or problems arising from each rule.

Rule of interpretation / Likely outcome of case / Uncertainties and problems
of this rule
Literal rule / Mrs Berriman lost the case - no compensation
Golden rule
Mischief rule
Purposive approach

Activity 7: Short answer questions

In TMA 01 you are asked to answer a series of short answer questions:

How will you prepare for TMA 01
What pitfalls should you avoid when you are tackling TMA 01
What makes a good answer to these types of questions
Can you create a check list of how to approach TMA 01

Activity 8:Statute law

Question

There was a very old common law rule that said that if the victim of an assault or attempted murder survived for a year and a day after the date of the incident, the perpetrator could not be tried for murder. This rule was based on the fact that at the time it would have been impossible to tell after that time whether the assault actually caused the death. Medical techniques can now preserve life for long periods so the rule was no longer appropriate.

Read this extract from the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996 and answer the questions that follow.

Extract from the Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996
1. The rule known as the "year and a day rule" (that is, the rule
that, for the purposes of offences involving death and of suicide, an
act or omission is conclusively presumed not to have caused a
person's death if more than a year and a day elapsed before he died)
is abolished for all purposes.
2. - (1) Proceedings to which this section applies may only be
instituted by or with the consent of the Attorney General.
(2) This section applies to proceedings against a person for a
fatal offence if-
(a) the injury alleged to have caused the death was
sustained more than three years before the death
occurred, or
(b) the person has previously been convicted of an
offence committed in circumstances alleged to be
connected with the death.
(3) In subsection (2) "fatal offence" means-
(a) murder, manslaughter, infanticide or any other
offence of which one of the elements is causing a
person's death, or
(b) the offence of aiding, abetting, counselling or
procuring a person's suicide.
(4) No provision that proceedings may be instituted only by or
with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions shall apply
to proceedings to which this section applies.

Find and highlight the connectors in this extract.

Are there any defined terms? If so what terms or phrases are defined and where is the definition?

Answer questions (a) to (d) by applying this extract from The Law Reform (Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996 to the following scenario:

Bob is violently attacked by Laurence. In the struggle Bob falls and hits his head. Sadly he falls into a coma and does not come round. Some four years later he dies.

(a) Can Laurence be prosecuted for Bob’s murder or manslaughter (you need not decide which offence is most relevant)?

(b) Which section permits this and how does it change the law?

(d) Why would prosecution for this death require consent? Which section and sub-section applies?

Activity 9: Ratio decidendi and obiter dictum

Put a tick beside every statement that is accurate in respect of ratio decidendi and obiter dictum. Some statements may apply to both parts of a judgment.

Ratio decidendi / Obiter dictum
This is a statement made by a judge.
This statement is ‘something said by the way’.
This statement is the reason for the judge’s decision.
This statement will be used as a binding precedent.
This statement is not specifically identified in the judgment.
This statement may be used as a persuasive authority.
This statement may be made if a judge speculates about a decision that might have applied in different circumstances.