User:Visviva/Legislation

Legislation is the process by which a legislature or other law-making body makes laws, and the laws that it makes. Legislation that has become law may also be called a statute.

= Lawmaking =

Lawmaking is the process of crafting legislation. In its purest sense, it is the basis of governance. This form of law making is also applied in India. It is a process which works in India on the basis of the Constitution of India. Lawmaking in modern democracies is the work of legislatures, which exist at the local, regional, and national levels and make such laws as are appropriate to their level, and binding over those under their jurisdictions. These bodies are influenced by lobbyists, pressure groups, sometimes partisan considerations, but ultimately by the voters who elected them and to which they are responsible, if the system is working as intended. Even the expenditure of governmental funds is an aspect of lawmaking, as in most jurisdictions the budget is a matter of law.

In dictatorships and absolute monarchies the leader can make law essentially by the stroke of a pen, one of the main objections to such an arrangement. However, a seemingly-analogous event can occur even in a democracy where the executive can make executive orders which have the force of law. In some instance, even regulations issued by executive departments can have the force of law. Libertarians, in particular, are known for denouncing such actions as being anti-democratic, but they have become such a salient feature of modern governance that it is hard to picture a system in which they no longer exist, because it is hard to picture the time involved in every regulation being debated prior to becoming law. That, say libertarians, is precisely the point: if such executive orders and regulations do not stand up to legislative scrutiny, they should never be implemented. In response to this, limits on regulatory authority have been made legislatively, and libertarians still contend for, if not the abolition of executive orders altogether, then their automatic sunset after a fixed period if not legislatively reviewed and confirmed; this policy has been adopted in some jurisdictions.

Acts
The process of enactment, by which a bill becomes an Act, is separate from commencement. Even if a bill passes through all necessary stages to become an Act, it may not automatically come into force. Moreover, an Act may be repealed having never come into force.

A country's law could determine that on being passed by lawmakers a bill becomes an act without further ado. However, more usually, the process whereby a bill becomes an Act is well prescribed in general constitutional or administrative legislation. This process varies from country to country, and from political system to political system.

Typically, the process by which a bill becomes an Act includes signature or some other token of assent by the head of state and publication in an official gazette. In some systems, the head of state or some other official is required to definitely signify his approval, as for example in the granting of royal assent in the Commonwealth realms. In others, a bill automatically becomes an Act unless vetoed, as for example in the United States. But these steps do not, in themselves, make an act legally binding on the population. An act is typically brought into force in one of three ways:
 * By means of an explicit commencement date (and sometimes time of day) written into the act itself. It is possible for different sections of an act to come into force at different dates or times.
 * As a result of a commencement order. Usually, an Act or part of an Act may only be brought into force by a commencement order if explicit provision is made. Commencement orders are typically issued by the executive branch of government, though they may also require legislative approval, or at least that the legislature be informed. As with explicit commencement dates, different parts of an act may be brought into force by different commencement orders at different times.
 * Automatically. An Act that does not include explicit commencement dates or provision for commencement orders, or that has dates or provides for commencement orders for only some of its contents, will typically be interpreted as having come into effect at a certain time relative to its enactment. This time is usually specified by an interpretive statute, or, in the absence of such a statute, a legal rule. For example, in the United Kingdom, until late in the 18th century a legal rule interpreted statutes as coming into effect at the start of the legislative session in which they were passed, but Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793 stipulated that future laws without explicit commencement provisions would come into effect on the day on which they received royal assent. A similar example is provided by New Zealand, where an Act without commencement provisions comes into force on the day after the day on which it received royal assent.
 * It is possible for an Act to come into effect through any combination of these three methods.

It is not necessarily the case that a statute which comes into force remains in force until it is repealed; it may be explicitly brought out of force, and perhaps later brought back into force. For example, in Ireland, Section V of the Offences against the State Act 1939 (which provides for the Special Criminal Court) goes in and out of force by government proclamation: it was brought into force on 24 August 1939, out of force on 2 October 1962, and back into force on 26 May 1972.

United Kingdom
Section 4 of the Interpretation Act 1978 provides:

"An Act or provision of an Act comes into force—
 * (a) where provision is made for it to come into force on a particular day, at the beginning of that day;
 * (b) where no provision is made for its coming into force, at the beginning of the day on which the Act receives the Royal Assent."

This replaces the corresponding provision in the Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793.

Schedule 1 of that Act contains the following definition:

""Commencement", in relation to an Act or enactment, means the time when the Act or enactment comes into force."

Northern Ireland
Sections 14(1) and (2) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 read:

"(1) Every enactment which is not expressed to come into force or operation on a particular day shall come into operation immediately on the expiration of the day before the date of the passing thereof, or, where the enactment is a statutory instrument, of the making thereof. (2) Where an enactment is expressed to come into force or operation on a particular day (whether such day is before or after the date of the passing of such enactment, or where the enactment is a statutory instrument, of the making thereof, and whether such day is named in the enactment or is to be appointed or fixed or ascertained in any other manner) the enactment shall be construed as coming into force immediately on the expiration of the day before that particular day."

In an enactment the expression "commencement", when used with reference to any statutory provision, means the time at which that provision comes into operation.

Scotland
Sections 2 and 3 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, which applies to Acts of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Statutory Instruments, provide-

"2 Commencement of Acts of the Scottish Parliament (1) Subsection (2) applies where no provision is made for the coming into force of an Act of the Scottish Parliament. (2) The Act comes into force at the beginning of the day after the day on which the Bill for the Act receives Royal Assent.

3 Commencement of Acts of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish instruments: time (1) Subsection (2) applies where an Act of the Scottish Parliament or a Scottish instrument provides for the Act or instrument to come into force on a particular day. (2) The Act or instrument comes into force at the beginning of the day."

This replaces the temporary provision made by the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Publication and Interpretation etc. of Acts of the Scottish Parliament) Order 1999.

Overview
Legislation to design or amend a bill requires identifying a concrete issue in a comprehensive way. When engaging in legislation, drafters and policy-makers must take into consideration the best possible avenues to address problem areas. Possible solutions within bill provisions might involve implementing sanctions, targeting indirect behaviors, authorizing agency action, etc.

Legislation is usually proposed by a member of the legislature (e.g. a member of Congress or Parliament), 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 is generally a matter of the legislative priorities of the government.

Legislation is regarded as one of the three main functions of government, which are often distinguished under the doctrine of the separation of powers. Those who have the formal power to create legislation are known as legislators; a judicial branch of government will have the formal power to interpret legislation (see statutory interpretation); the executive branch of government can act only within the powers and limits set by the law, which is the instrument by which the fundamental powers of government are established.

The function and procedures are primarily the responsibility of the legislature. However, there are situations where legislation is made by other bodies or means, such as when constitutional law or secondary legislation is enacted. Such other forms of law-making include referendums, orders in council or regulations. The term legislation is sometimes used to include these situations, or the term primary legislation may be used to exclude these other forms.

Public participation in legislation
All modern constitutions and fundamental laws contain and declare the concept and principle of popular sovereignty, which essentially means that the people are the ultimate source of public power or government authority. The concept of popular sovereignty holds simply that in a society organized for political action, the will of the people as a whole is the only right standard of political action. It can be regarded as an important element in the system of checks and balances and representative democracy. Therefore, the people are implicitly entitled even to directly participate in the process of law-making. This role of linking citizens and their government and legislators is closely related to the concept of legitimacy. The exercise of democratic control over the legislative system and the policy-making process can occur even when the public has only an elementary understanding of the national legislative institution and its membership. Civic education is a vital strategy for strengthening public participation and confidence in the legislative process.

Dead letter
The term "dead letter" refers to legislation that has not been revoked, but that has become inapplicable or obsolete, or is no longer enforced.