Year 10 Legal Studies - Term 1

1. {
Making LawsSources of law
How laws are made in Queensland
How to read and understand statute law

2.  Laws are made by:
 The Constitution of Australia
 Parliament
 Courts/Judges
Sources of Law

3.  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

4.  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

5.  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

6.  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

7.  Go to www.comlaw.gov.au
 Type ‘constitution act’ into the search bar (top
right hand corner)
 Find the current Constitution to download

8.  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?

9.  Three levels of parliaments responsible for
lawmaking:
1. Federal
2. State
3. Local
Parliament

10.  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

11.  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

12.  List the 9 Australian parliaments
 They have the following legislative powers:
 Pass new laws
 Amend existing laws
 Repeal laws

13.  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)

14.  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

15.  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

16.  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

17.  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

18.  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