The Canadian Lawmaking Process

Before there is a law, there is a bill – and bills have many phases to pass through before these may become laws. The course materials of week three point out that a bill can originate

Legislation is a law or a couple of laws made by the government and finalised by the parliament. The parliament decides whether the legislation is good enough or needs improvement.

Since the British North America Act was adopted in 1867, Canada has been developing and writing up their own laws independently from other countries. Many people believe that, though our Canadian laws have come far from the days of the BNA act, they are still not up to par with the harshness of American laws. The advantage that Canadians have over Americans is that in Canada, there is only one criminal code for all Canadians whereas in the United States, every State has their own criminal codes which, unfortunately for the Americans, are not identical. Also, the United States and Canada each have a law that is fraught with the possibility that an injustice will be brought upon those whom these laws apply. In the United States, it is the

In contrast to the Canadian parliamentary system, which has remained fairly static and unchanged since Victorian times, the Canadian legal system has undergone a tremendous evolution over the last century and a half. When looking at Canadian history in depth one discovers the repeated movement to take power from the superiors or the overruling and place it into the palms of the people. As seen through examples our western law (canadian law) has slowly branched off from the supremacy of God (mosaic law), to the supremacy of the monarchy (bristish law), finally to a realization of the importance of citizen participation in the creating, governing, and administrating of the laws (Greek law).

The Manitoba Act said that Manitoba could send in 4 member to the House Of Commons and 2 members into the Senate. It also declared that 560 000 hectares of land would be kept for the Metis families and that of people could use French or English in schools and government.

Between the two schools of epistemology, rationalism and empiricism, I am inclined towards the philosophies of rationalism. I am persuaded towards philosophical approaches which are superior at attaining truth. Empiricism relies on observation using the five senses in reasoning to achieve truth. However, in Plato’s Thaetetus, Socrates gives strong arguments for the limitations of human perception. The Canadian legal system, also, recognizes flaws in human observation, which increases my skepticism of empiricism. Conversely, rationalism relies solely on the use of logic and deduction in reasoning. Both, Plato and Socrates stressed the value of rationalism through the ability to know and express combinations of elements through mathematics. Large

A Bill has a number of stages that it goes through before it is presented to the Queen to be signed. It starts off as a discussion in the House of Commons, and if decided to be an effective new policy idea then it is sent off

There are many types of bills, which are legislation which the legislature makes laws.. Most laws are lined up into codes, codes are collections of laws that are organized by topic to make them easier for the

Finally turning to legislation, Docherty highlights particular trends in Canadian legislatures that are impacting the quality and timely nature of legislation. Firstly, the downsizing of legislatures occurring across Canada. In

Laws are the foundation of our society, they keep citizens safe and preserve our individual freedoms. Before a law is enacted it must start out as a bill. Each bill has an extensive process it must go through to become a law of the United States of America. This process of approval ensures that those three different parts of government agree on the bill before it becomes a law. In order to become law, a bill needs to be approved by the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President of the United States. The law-making process, or Legislative process, can be broken into two basic steps, proposition and approval. These steps are the traditional and basic steps. As time went on, these steps have been altered and changed. A bill

But the bill can also be brought to the floor if a large amount of the Senate chooses it to. Then there is the debate, The Committee of the Whole debates and amends the bill, but they can not pass it. They will decide how much time each person will get to debate the bill. The bill will then go back to the house to be voted on; there must be two hundred and eighteen members present to have a final vote. If for some reason there is not enough members the House will be adjourned or the Sergeant at Arms will go get them.

Most bills must have simple majority to pass. At this point of development, the process is especially exemplary because the bill in the Senate is now considered by debate to better illustrate its strengths and/or weaknesses. To summarize, the bill has now been passed by both houses of congress.

A bill is first introduced in either the House of Representatives or the Senate. However, a money bill must start in the House of Representatives only. After being introduced, the bill first begins in Committee, where it is assigned a number and committee. At this stage, the committee assigned to the bill will discuss and amend the bill as necessary. A majority vote is needed in order for the bill to continue on its journey to becoming a law. Sadly, ninety percent of bills die in Committee because the committee may not

There are committees for different topics of what a bill could be. The bills are sent to the committees by a speaker of the house. Once the bill reaches the Committee, the members decide what to do with it. Now days most bill dies at this stage, meaning that the bill does not pass and becomes a law. Although when it does passed, the committee makes a vote, and it is sent to the next part of the law-making process which is the Rules Committee, who also decide on it through debate, deciding what will good about making the laws, or what could be the negative outcome to it, in this stage the bill could die to. This committee not only can reject or pass the bills, but add amendments, then after their changes are done; they pass the bill to the Senate.

Every Act of Parliament begins as a bill which is a draft law that may be public or private. A public Bill is launched by the Government and affects everyone in the country. However, private