Advantages and Disadvantages of Parliamentary Law making

Parliamentary Law Making
1. Advantages
  1. Scrutiny: The legislative process is very thorough. There are three readings and two stages in each of the Houses of Parliament.This provides several opportunities for debate, scrutiny, and amendment, ensuring that any mistakes or poor drafting can be corrected.
  2. Democratic: Parliamentary law - making is democratic. MPs in the House of Commons are democratically elected to make laws. During the debates on the proposed law, each MP should have the opportunity to put forward the view of his/her constituents.
    1. The members of the House of Lords are not democratically elected therefore they can't veto a bill that has the approval of the Commons. Under the Parliaments Act of 1911 and 1949 the delaying power of the Lords is limited to one month in respect of money bills and one year for other bills.
      1. The role of the Monarch, also unelected, has been reduced to a formality.
  3. Government Control: Government has considerable control over parliamentary law- making. It controls parliamentary timetable for debates and is likely to win at each voting stage of the process unless a number of its own MPs vote against it. This is democratic because the Government.
  4. The House Of Lords: Acts as a checking mechanism- it can guard against laws being passed solely to fir the Governments political agenda. If the House of Lords exercises its power of delay there will be further opportunity for debate and amendment of the bill's provisions.
    1. The House of Lords contains many peers with significant expertise in many different issues. The quality of scrutiny and debate is very high.
    2. Special rules are in existence in respect of money bills. The whole House will sit in at the committee stage in the House of Commons when a finance bill is being considered.
  5. Flexibility: Several types of bills which are introduced into either House. Not only the Government but all MPs and Lords have the opportunity to propose new laws. Useful when the Government has not given thought into a particular matter or does not want to be seen to introduce controversial legislation. E.g. Abortion Act 1967, Marriage Act 1994.
2. Disadvantages
  1. Undemocratic: Neither the House of Lords or the Queen is elected so therefore they should not be able to have the authority to delay bills that have been approved by the democratically elected House of Commons however whilst they are elected MPs are persuaded to vote with their party rather than in accordance with the the wishes of their constituencies.
    1. A Government with a large majority may be able to introduce any legislation it pleases.
  2. Government Control: Government has a majority of MPs in the House of Commons it can vote out any private members' bill that does not fit its political agenda. Very little parliamentary time is allocated to private members' bills.
    1. Only a small amount of private members' bills are enacted each year. In 200/10 only five private members' bills made it into the book of statutes.
  3. Slow: Parliamentary law making is a long process and is very slow. A bill has to go through many readings and stages in each House. It can take many minths and is not appropriate when important laws need to be made quickly. It also has to go through Royal Assent which some people think is irrelevant because it is no longer a formality and just holds up the process.
  4. Dated processes, language and statistics: When drafting a bill, parliamentary draftsmen use words and phrases that are ambiguous, unclear, obscure and over - elaborate. Therefore it is sometimes up to the Judges to decide what the Act is meant to say. Sometimes the language is also non understandable to the public and sometimes lawyers. Another problem is that the structure of the Acts is illogical. These issues make the law inaccessible to ordinary people.
    1. Not all Acts become law at the point of Royal Assent, they may be brought into force by a government minister at a later date. In situations like that it is necessary to research regulations issued by the minister.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Parliamentary Law making

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