The Main Sources of Law in England Today and the Role of Judges Essay

The Main Sources of Law in England Today and the Role of Judges - Essay Example The Human Rights Act of 1998 enables all the UK courts to guard the rights identified in the ECHR (Alisdair 2007, p. 20). The English law is based on three pillars; parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law, and separation of powers. Parliamentary sovereignty refers to the supremacy of the United Kingdom Parliament in legislative matters. The principal source of UK law is the UK Parliament. Separation of powers means there is the existence of some degree of independence in the running the different roles of government. Conventionally, these roles are the executive, legislative, and the judicial functions of government (John 2011, p. 145). The rule of law calls for equality of all before the law. The rule of law encompasses basic liberties including freedom from arbitrary laws and arbitrary powers (Alisdair 2007, p. 21). Statutes Statutes are laws, which are made by parliament. The House of Lords, House of Commons, and Monarch are responsible for making legislation. Legislation begin s with a Bill, and there are three types of bills; public bills, private bills, private members’ bills. Public Bills are introduced by the government on public policy matters that affect the entire country. Local governments or large public companies introduce Private Bills. Private Members’ Bills are introduced by the Members of Parliament who are not Government Ministers or Lords (John 2011, p. 147). The Legislative Process Bills may be initiated into either House of Lords (except Finance Bills, which start in the House of Commons) or the House of Commons. A Bill follows several stages; First Reading, the title of the Bill and the main objectives are read out. Second Reading; the Bill is fully read. The main debate takes place concerning any contentious issues; amendments can be made at this stage. Joint Select Committee on Human Rights reports any occurrence of Human Rights issues. After the debates, the House votes whether to proceed or not. Committee Stage; at thi s stage the Committee scrutinize each and every clause of the Bill. The Committee Stage is an exercise of eliminating any drafting errors. Amendments of the Bill may be proposed by the Committee. Report Stage; the committee files its findings to the House of origin. The proposed modifications are then debated, and the members vote for or against the amendments (John 2011, p. 149). Third Reading; The Bill is fully read, and at this stage, a debate will be there if at least six MPs request it. The MPs will vote whether the Bill should continue or not. If a Bill successfully passes all the stages, it then continues to the alternative Chamber. Any modifications made in the alternative House should be submitted back to the House of origin to assent to the amendments; this in known as Ping Pong. Once a Bill successfully passes through both houses, it then goes to Royal Assent. This entails a formal process whereby the Queen assents the Bill, and it officially becomes a statute. The newly generated statute contains a date of implementation shortly following the Royal Assent. Delegated legislation is made under the power of the Act of Parliament. The Act gives an institution or a person authority to make the detail of the law on behalf of the Parliament (John 2011, p. 150). The following are the advantages and disadvantages of Statute Law as demonstrated by John (2011, p. 152). Advantages Parliaments are elected since they have policies citizens want. This means that their laws

'How has the study of literature changed over the last 100 years' Essay

'How has the study of literature changed over the last 100 years' - Essay Example Literature had and always will define the life style of people in any nation at all. It used to be written by people who felt for the society, who wanted to improve the society or define the society’s good points and bad points. They were also the ones understood the need of the society. The people of the societies, usually American, and English in general were the ones who used to like parties, and social dinners. They usually were people who lived in the countryside, were ruled by the kings and queens, fought wars on the horses, were pirates, sailed in ships for long journeys lasting for days, liked romance, long walks on the grass in the evening, horse-riding, playing the piano, writing and reading poetry, and dancing. They were also the people who ballet danced. Quite a handful was able to go to educational institutions – colleges and universities. War was prevalent in most of the countries and continents over the capture of land power and wealth. These wars were fo ught on horse- backs, with swords and spears, and took days and days on end to end. The people who went to war had little or no hope of returning. And the people who stayed back awaited their return without hope. There was no contact or correspondence during that time-frame. People had to wait days for a letter to arrive. And to feel connected many wrote and read literature which described to them, battles and sea, and different places, just so they would feel connected and belonging. All these events gave rise to the fashion of writing and reading literature and poetry, ads the society was taken over by pain, loss, hurt, wait, anticipation , romance, tranquility, so almost of the accounts were written down so people would entertain themselves in time of loneliness and pain. These account of literature and poetry defined it all to them. The lonely housewives and the growing up teenage girls used to read romance novels and it used to help them fantasize about a prince charming that w ould come one day and lift them off their feet and sweep them away with him. The sailors used to study literature on their time away from home so that they didn’t feel the absence of home and their wives. All this was provided to them via literature. With the passage of time the people who went to the universities and colleges discovered new ways of communication. The telephone was discovered and was becoming common-place. People now did not have to wait for days o talk to loved ones. Literature was now only left to describe places and romance and battles. Soon the telephone turned into hand held cell-phones, and alongside, the computer technology came into being. People relied less and less on literature to tell them about battles. The computer became abundant and the people found it easy to what videos from all around the world, instead of reading them from a book. Social parties were growing lesser as the class of rich people started to fall in number and blended into the middle class. People did not go for long wars, too far off places. Wars were also not fought on horse backs and certainly not with any swords and knives, but instead with nuclear numbs. These were, very literally, machines of death. So much so that people did not like to write or read about it. Literature was now only limited to romance. By the turn of the century, electronic media became the soul of the people. Whatever was required was found either on a computer, or on a high-speed internet cable, or in a smart-phone. People who liked to