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Exercise 3. Revise the forms of English Statute law. Be ready to speak on the classification of Russian legislation.






Statute law: the classification of legislative measures

The vast bulk of the new law that is brought into effect in England is statute law, that is law which has been passed through Parliament following analysis and debate in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Statute law comes in a variety of forms:

* primary legislation

* secondary legislation

* tertiary legislation, and

* (not strictly statute law) 'quasi-legislation' or 'soft law'.

Primary legislation comprises the eighty or so Acts of Parliament that are passed through Parliament each year. The process consumes a great deal of Parliamentary time; indeed lack of time is a significant constraint on the law-making process. Many legislative proposals—particularly if they are not high on the government's political agenda—are brought forward only when 'time is available'. This can be used as an excuse for a government delaying bringing a new measure forward; but the non-availability of Parliamentary time is also a real constraint on the opportunities for introducing and then amending legislation. Most Acts of Parliament are 'Public General Acts', applying throughout the land; some are 'Local or Personal Acts' applying only in particular localities or to specific people.

Primary legislation is supplemented by a vast body of secondary legislation-regulations and orders made under the authority of an Act of Parliament. There are typically in excess of 3, 000 such items, known generically as statutory instruments, made each year. These run to many thousands of pages of text. They are not subject to detailed Parliamentary scrutiny, though in many cases statutory instruments cannot be made by the Government without a process of consultation with a specialist Advisory Committee.

An interesting example of the use of a specialist committee to review delegated legislation is the work of the Social Security Advisory Committee which looks at draft regulations relating to social security policy. It not only considers the proposals itself, but also consults on those proposals with a wide range of bodies and pressure groups outside government. It reflects on these comments before making its own report to the Government. The Government then decides whether or not to accept the advice of its Committee.

When it brings forward the final version of the regulations, the Government is required to publish a special report which not only reproduces the report from the Advisory Committee, but also details why the Government has (or more often has not) followed the advice of the Committee.

This represents a particular form of accountability which to some extent replaces normal Parliamentary debate; arguably it is more relevant since most of the commentators will have a specialist interest in and knowledge of the area. This is a model which, it has been forcefully argued, should apply in other regulation-making contexts.

Another example is the work of the Council on Tribunals which scrutinizes draft statutory instruments relating to the practice and procedures of tribunals and inquiries.

In addition to primary and secondary legislation, there is also a vast array of tertiary legislation— legislative instruments which are made under the authority of an Act of Parliament, but which are subject to no Parliamentary scrutiny at all. For example, in Housing Law, numerous powers are given to ministers to issue 'directions' or other instruments, which are drafted in the form of legislation and which effectively have the force of law, but which are simply issued by the government department in question. Similar examples are found in many other areas of government.

There is, finally, a fourth category of instrument, sometimes referred to as quasi-legislation or soft law, which comprise statements of good practice or guidance. These may be made under the authority of an Act of Parliament and may in some cases be subject to Parliamentary approval. But, as with tertiary legislation, they are subject to no detailed Parliamentary discussion. Examples include codes of practice such as the Highway Code or the Codes of Practice relating to police behaviour made under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Many other examples could be given.

One practical problem with tertiary and 'quasi'-legislation is that it is not published in the normal way by the Stationary Office—the official outlet for government publications. For example ministerial directions will usually be made available to those who need to know about them; the ordinary member of the public who may wish to know about the existence of these documents may find them hard to track down.

An important issue of principle flows from this. There is a simplistic assumption that because legislation is published by a single authoritative source, 'everyone is deemed to know the law'. Such a claim is simply not sustainable in the case of such instruments.

Questions:

1. What are the forms of Statute law?

2. What is primary legislation (secondary legislation, tertiary legislation, 'quasi-legislation'? What is the difference between 'Public General Acts' and 'Local or Personal Acts'?

3. What is the responsibility of the Stationary Office?

Exercise 4. Find Russian equivalents of the following phrases, learn them and be ready to use in your speech. Think of Russian sentences containing the phrases to translate into English.

1. a vast range of social policies

2. to be enshrined in the laws

3. to call public officials to account

4. redress of individual grievances

5. resolution of complaints

6. to underpin good administration

7. openness (transparency)

8. fairness

9. rationality

10. impartiality

11. to prevent the exercise of arbitrary power

12. control of consistency

13. efficiency

14. equity and equal treatment.

15. to keep officials in check

16. to impose constraints on smb

17. to quash

18. to revive the decision

19. to remit the matter to an agency

20. findings of the administrative court

21. to be subject to detailed parliamentary scrutiny

22. statements of good practice or guidance

23. codes of practice

24. liable to be sued

25. to sue for torts






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