Topic 220

Legislation: policy development, enactment, enforcement and analysis by Romeo Wu

Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body. The term may refer to a single law, or the collective body of enacted law, while "statute" is also used to refer to a single law. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, which is typically also known as "legislation" while it remains under active consideration. In some jurisdictions, legislation must be confirmed by the executive branch of government before it enters into force as law. Under the Westminster system, an item of legislation is known as an Act of Parliament after enactment.

Legislation is usually proposed by a member of the legislature or by the executive, whereupon it is debated by members of the legislature and is often amended before passage. Most large legislatures enact only a small fraction of the bills proposed in a given session. Whether a given bill will be proposed and enter into force is generally a matter of the legislative priorities of government. Those who have the formal power to create legislation are known as legislators, while the judicial branch of government may have the formal power to interpret legislation.

The record of events and public statements of legislators that explain the reasons for the law and its expected meaning are called "legislative history". Often, this will include formal speeches or writings made by the bill's sponsors and chief critics. Courts often refer to legislative history in interpreting legislation, in order to discern "intent” or what legislators meant for the law to mean.

However, there is a prevalent minority view among some judges that laws should be interpreted solely according to their text, and without regard to legislative intent. This debate is complicated by the fact that legislators will sometimes craft the text of a law to be intentionally obscure or vague as part of a political compromise, and that in a large legislative body, most of those who vote in favor of a bill will not have read the bill's full legislative history, or, indeed, the bill itself.


Legislation: policy development, enactment, enforcement and analysis by Ronald Chu

First of all, what is “legislation?” According to www.wikipedia.org, legislation, (also known as statutory law) is a law that the legislature or other governing body has passed. A legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to adopt laws. Legislatures are known by many names, the most common are parliament and congress, although these terms also have more specific meanings. A legislation may be a single law or the collective body of a group of laws (“statute” refers to the meaning of one law).

An item of legislation (law passed by the legislative branch of government) may sometimes have to be confirmed by the executive branch of government before it becomes a proper law. Legislation is usually proposed by a member of the legislature (for example, a member of Congress or Parliament), or by the executive itself, where it is debated by members of the legislature and is often changed before completely approved. Those who have the formal power to create legislation are known as legislators, while the judicial branch of government may have the formal power to interpret legislation.

As stated above, the legislation creates a law, and a different branch of government (executive) or the President, himself, will “check” and confirm it. If it passes inspection, the law is confirmed and becomes concrete. (The act of making legislation is sometimes known as legislating.) So, in other words, the legislation branch alone cannot create and pass a law without approval. This goes for vice versa. There is the power of veto here.

The legislation does not only pass laws. Although passing laws may be its primary responsibility, there are other forms of law-making include referenda and constitutional conventions. The term "legislation" is sometimes used to describe these situations, but other times, the term is used to distinguish acts of the legislature from these other lawmaking forms.

Also, some country's laws will empower the executive branch or other government agency to issue regulations or decrees which can carry the force of law, although this is also generally not considered legislation. Legislation can also be created at provincial and local levels of government (which have their own legislatures), where separation of powers may be less formal and complete.

Legislative history refers to the record of events and public statements of legislators that explain the reasons for the law and its expected meaning. Often, this will include formal speeches or writings made by the bill's sponsors and chief critics.

There is also such a thing called secondary legislation, also known as subordinate or delegated legislation. This is a law made by an executive authority under powers given to them by primary legislation in order to implement and administer the requirements of the acts.