THE LEGISLATION SYSTEM
IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Jana Křehlíková
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SYLLABUS:
¢The United Kingdom
¢Legislature
¢The First Reading
¢The Second Reading
¢The Comittee stage
¢The Third Reading
¢The Royal Assent
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ØEngland
ØScotland
ØNorthern Ireland
ØWales
¢Some Acts apply to all the legal systems; many to one or two of them.
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¢The United Kingdom
¢Parts of United Kingdom

LEGISLATURE:
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¢The Parliament consists of two Houses: the House of Commons (650 elected members) and the House of
Lords (1,170 members).
¢The House of Commons is the lawmaking body.
¢The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker and the House of Lords by the Lord
Chancellor.
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SPEAKER JOHN BERCOW (SINCE 2009)
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THE FIRST READING
¢The Bill is placed on the Table on the day of presentation.
¢Speaker calls the name of the sponsor of the Bill
¢Clerk reads the short title of the Bill.
¢Minister or the Whip acting on his or her behalf.
¢Is plan the date of second reading.
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THE SECOND READING
¢= First substantive stage
¢Date has been set in a Business Statement – usually two weeks before.
¢The House considers the principle of the Bill.
¢The debate on Second Reading is printed in Hansard, the Official Report of debates.

COMMITTEE STAGE
¢It involves clause by clause consideration of the Bill.
¢Amendments and new clauses may be moved by the Minister, the Opposition spokeman or by any Member
of the Comimittee.
¢Then the Bill is reprinted.

THE THIRD READING
¢They read the Bill in the final version.
¢It is usually short and only formal.
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ROYAL ASSENT
¢After ratification
¢ by House of Commons
¢ and House of Lords, Bill has to be
¢ submitted to the Royal Assent.
¢After signification of Royal Assent,
¢the Bill become an Act, and is printed an sold both individually and in the annual series of
Public and General Acts.
¢Each Act is given a Chapter number.
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SOURCES:
¢Chromá, M. – New Introduction to Legal English, Volume I
¢El-Hmoudová, D. – Angličtina maturitní témata
¢www.wikipedia.org
¢http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
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¢ Thank you for your attention.