VCE Legal Studies Question Thread

[chrisjb]

One of my mates doing Legal 3+4 asked me this today and I couldn't think of much to answer it and was wondering what you guys thought:

How does the senate ensure that responsible government is upheld?

All I could come up with was that they can hault any hastily made/ irresponsible legislation and also that any government ministers residing in the senate would be subject to the ministerial accountability as their counterparts in the house of reps would be... But it seems a little weak, anyone else able to answer this better?

[flash36]

Ministerial accountability is the main point you'd need to make I think. It also ensures ministers are made accountable to their states also, not just their electorate or their party.

[nacho]

One of my mates doing Legal 3+4 asked me this today and I couldn't think of much to answer it and was wondering what you guys thought:

How does the senate ensure that responsible government is upheld?

All I could come up with was that they can hault any hastily made/ irresponsible legislation and also that any government ministers residing in the senate would be subject to the ministerial accountability as their counterparts in the house of reps would be... But it seems a little weak, anyone else able to answer this better?

You're pretty much correct in saying that.
It acts as a house of review for legislation that has been passed in the lower house. It scrutinises and debates and amends or rejects legislation that has been initiated by the government. In doing so it upholds a system of checks and balances (which further leads into the seperation of powers).

[chrisjb]

One of my mates doing Legal 3+4 asked me this today and I couldn't think of much to answer it and was wondering what you guys thought:

How does the senate ensure that responsible government is upheld?

All I could come up with was that they can hault any hastily made/ irresponsible legislation and also that any government ministers residing in the senate would be subject to the ministerial accountability as their counterparts in the house of reps would be... But it seems a little weak, anyone else able to answer this better?

You're pretty much correct in saying that.
It acts as a house of review for legislation that has been passed in the lower house. It scrutinises and debates and amends or rejects legislation that has been initiated by the government. In doing so it upholds a system of checks and balances (which further leads into the seperation of powers).

Ministerial accountability is the main point you'd need to make I think. It also ensures ministers are made accountable to their states also, not just their electorate or their party.

Thanks for the help guys. I'll pass that all on. It seemed a realy strange question to me to specify the senate like that... Anyway, good luck to you both.

[gs]

Hey Chris, what SAC ranking did you get @ your school to get the 43?

[Darren]

When covering the role of the VLRC in the study design, should I include the PROCESS of the VLRC is suggestion law-reform? Is the role enough for the study design? And a current example of course.

[flash36]

When covering the role of the VLRC in the study design, should I include the PROCESS of the VLRC is suggestion law-reform? Is the role enough for the study design? And a current example of course.

Include the process.

[chrisjb]

Hey Chris, what SAC ranking did you get @ your school to get the 43?

No idea, school doesn't let us know our rank. I know my U3 score was 99/100 and U4 was 98/100 and in terms of study scores I was ranked about 7th (quite a strong cohort &two classes- but my class got all but 1 of the 40+s if I remember correctly). I would guess that my sac rank was about 4th but I don't know for sure.

[gs]

Alrighty cheers Chris.

[Darren]

Can someone list and explain formal pressures to change law besides the VLRC?

[eeps]

The study design changed so that students only need to know one formal pressure for change/law reform body; the VLRC.

[Darren]

^ Sigh of relief. But in the A+ book it lists formal pressures as internal parliamentary bodies such as Cabinet, parliamentary counsels, etc. I don't need to know this?

[eeps]

I wouldn't think so, I certainly haven't learnt any other formal pressures for change besides the VLRC... the best bet would be to ask your teacher for clarification.

[Liuy]

I would say it doesn't hurt to know what the cabinet, parliamentary counsel's basic roles are:
i.e. cabinet decides gov. policy and gauges society's trends and needs in order to initiate appropriate legislative change.
i.e. parliamentary counsel are people with legal expertise who draft the bill

but besides this, as EPL said, just concentrate on VLRC.

[saaaaaam]

It used to be that you had the choice between quite a few such as the VLRC, Royal Commissions ALRF. But the new study design does actually specify that you must learn the VLRC.

Key knowledge
This knowledge includes:
• principles of the Australian parliamentary system: representative government, responsible
government, and the separation of powers
• the structure of the Victorian Parliament and the Commonwealth Parliament and the roles played
by the Crown and the Houses of Parliament in law-making
• the reasons why laws may need to change
• the role of the Victorian Law Reform Commission
• the means by which individuals and groups influence legislative change, including petitions,
demonstrations and use of the media
• the legislative process for the progress of a bill through parliament
• strengths and weaknesses of parliament as a law-making body