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