We looked at recent high profile cases covering various areas of the law. We discussed the meaning of the word “law” and tried to come up with a definition. We put together a spider diagram of our thoughts. We agreed that a definition of the law could be that “Law is a set of rules that plays an important part in the creation and maintenance of social order”. We realised that custom and morality also play a part in shaping our behaviour. We talked about law and morality and when the two of them overlap e.g in the case of murder and when there is conflict between law and morality e.g The Abortion Act 1967. We learned the difference between POSITIVISTS (see Jargon Buster display in Room 98.) and the proponents of the NATURAL LAW THEORY.
We looked at the specification for AS law and the three areas we will be studying this year. We looked at the overall aims and objectives of the course. We set out class expectations and reminded ourselves that we will need to read around the subject extensively (with guidance) and that there is a lot of hard work ahead. Course is exam based only – there is no coursework. See specification
We then started Module 1 – Law Making – European Legislative Processes and Institutions. We looked at a brief timeline of the history of the EU. The European Economic Community was founded in 1957. There were six original members. The United Kingdom joined in 1973. The name “European Union” was introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993. By 1995 Union membership increased to 15. Another 10 countries joined on 1 May 2004 making the total membership 25. Two more countries (Bulgaria and Romania) are negotiating for membership in 2007.
The founding Treaty was the Treaty of Rome 1957 (The EC Treaty). This has been added to and amended by subsequent Treaties and the numbering of the Articles was altered in 1999 by the Treaty of Amsterdam. We will look at more information on the Treaties in due course.
