Download - 4. Making Laws
{Making Laws
Sources of lawHow laws are made in QueenslandHow to read and understand statute law
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Laws are made by: The Constitution of Australia Parliament Courts/Judges
Sources of Law
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Federal Parliament gets their right to make laws from the Constitution
State Parliament gets their right to make laws from what is not in the Constitution
The Constitution sets out three types of powers:
Exclusive Concurrent Residual
The Constitution
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Exclusive powers are those that can only be exercised by Commonwealth Parliament
Ie. Things that are laws Australia-wide Includes:
Armed forces, imports/exports, passports, currency, weights and measures, etc
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Concurrent powers are those which both State and Federal Parliament can make laws for
This includes: Taxation, trade, marriage and divorce, etc
Note: The Commonwealth does not have to create laws on concurrent powers, but can if they wish. If they do then the Federal law prevails over the State law.
Eg. Marriage – Qld could make its own marriage laws, but federally we have the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) so it prevails
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Residual powers are those that a state can make laws for
Ie. Queensland laws that have no federal counterpart
This includes: Education, transport, housing, health and
welfare issues, etc The Commonwealth is prohibited to
make laws on these areas under the Constitution
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Go to www.comlaw.gov.au Type ‘constitution act’ into the search
bar (top right hand corner) Find the current Constitution to
download
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Find s51 (section 51) of the Constitution Answer the following questions:
Does the Commonwealth Parliament or the Queensland Parliament have power under s51 to issue fishing licences on Stradbroke Island?
What are five powers listed in s51 that, in your opinion, should be exercised only by the Commonwealth and not by the states? What are your reasons?
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Three levels of parliaments responsible for lawmaking:
1. Federal2. State3. Local
Parliament
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Statute law is the most important source of law in Australia
Statute law is the name given to laws made by a Parliament (also called legislation or an Act of Parliament)
Passing of a law by Parliament
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
It is important because: It is the most common method of making
laws It overrides judge-made law if there is
inconsistency There is no limitation on its creation,
whereas judge-made law must be made based on a case
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
List the 9 Australian parliaments They have the following legislative
powers: Pass new laws Amend existing laws Repeal laws
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Pass new laws: Eg. Queensland passed the Summary
Offences Act 2004 (Qld), which superseded the Vagrants, Gaming and Offences Act 1931 (Qld)
This kept some old laws and added new ones
The Federal Euthanasia Laws Act 1997 (Cth) was passed by Federal Parliament to abolish the NT’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1996
Queensland legalised surrogacy for the first time with the passing of the Surrogacy Act (Qld)
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Amend existing laws: 2006 – Federal Parliament passed the
Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and the Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Act, which changed the law to allow embryonic stem cell research
1997 – The Queensland Criminal Code was amended to add a specific section on graffiti offences and to introduce the crime of computer fraud
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Repeal laws: In 1922 the Qld Criminal Code removed
the section allowing the death penalty In 1986 the same Act had the punishment
of whipping removed Some laws are abolished because they
contain archaic laws or outdated concepts
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Queensland’s parliament is unicameral, this means we have one house (the lower house)
Australia and every other state have a bicameral system – two houses (the upper house and the lower house)
We do this because it makes it easier to pass laws
How laws are made in Qld
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Federally, laws are approved by the lower house and then the upper house before finally being given royal assent and then becoming enforceable
In Queensland, laws are approved by the lower house and then given royal assent before becoming enforceable
There are many steps that the lower house goes through, but we won’t look at that in any real detail
10 Legal Studies [email protected]
Read the Learner.Link document ‘Understanding a law made by parliament’
From within the PDF complete the following:
‘Practical Application’, Q1-5, p.65 (under picture of guns)
Define ‘surrogacy’ ‘What do you think?’, Q1-3, p.66
Understanding Statute Law