Help on various questions... (1 Viewer)

[bmn]

They are on a revision worksheet thing our teacher gave us... Anyway:

1) (This is a very easy question, and I know it... However, I don't really know how to word it)
Describe what is meant by a bill of rights and... (dont need help with rest)

2) What is fairness and give an example of fairness. (I can do the first part - Fairness is concerned with equal outcomes which are jugded impartially and is often based on previous cases, but what is an example of it? Should it be a refference to a case study a generalisation?)
3) What is a social contract? (No idea, not in any of the 3 textbooks ive looked at...)

4) What are the excutive powers referred to in the constiution? (I need the answer, and is it meant to be 'excutive' or is that a typo?)

5) What is justice? (another one I know but cant explain)
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These ones aren't as important (are they even in the syllabus?) but anyway:

6) What roll does the cabinet play in passing laws? (our teacher really can't spell... )

7) What is another name for the cabinet?

8) Who is usually responsible for introducing laws into the federal parliament? (Is this the same as #5 just other way around? Our teacher tried to explain it but he is hopeless...)

 

[jeff.wong]

1] A Bill of Right is a document that enshrines a list of fundamental rights that all of the nation's citizens are bound to enjoy regardless of differences [race, status...etc]. E.g. US Bill of Rights. A number of attempts have been made to introduce a Bill of Rights into the Australian Constitution. However none of the attempts succeed. There is great debate over what a Bill of Rights should contain and indeed whether Australia really needs one, or whether the current mixture of limited constitutional rights and more extensive common and statute law rights is sufficient. The possibility of a Bill of Right can exist in two ways:
a) Into the Constitution which makes it hard to modify/remove.
b) Simply as a Act from parliament

2] Fairness often meant taking consideration of the individual case and applying sanctions taking into account of the offender’s past record and circumstances. For some areas of law such as administrative law fairness is considered more important than justice which means that the fairest outcome is determined rather than the most correct legal outcome. E.g. A rich person and a poor person both committed a traffic offence and a fine of $200 is imposed, for the rich person it is easily affordable whereas for the poor person it can be a difficulty. Thus at times judges take into consideration of this difference before applying the appropriate sanctions/fine.

3] Social contract is a concept which is basically: Without society, people will be in a state of anarchy doing whatever they want. To prevent this, people must elect a government to create social order to restrict some rights [e.g. in our society we cannot kill another human being]. Thus to create social order people have a "social contract" to prevent them from certain rights for greater good. E.g. in recent times, terrorism laws are invented to restrict certain rights for greater good.

4] Executive refers to the party responsible for the administration of law usually linked with the legislature in Australia, they are the ministers for different departments e.g. Health minister. The PM himself is also a part of the executive.

5] Justice is a concept that is achieved by 5 parts:
Access, equity, fairness, equality and human rights. This is very brief though more details in my notes.

6] The cabinet pass Bills to the Senate. Basically they draft Bills [make laws], however it will be up to the Senate to pass such Bills.

7] Executive ? [not too sure]

8] Pretty much.

 

[bmn]

Thanks for the awesome help... Although you didn't really answer Q4, it was about executive powers, rather then the executive itself...

 

[jeff.wong]

O my bad didn't read question properly:
4] Executive powers are powers that are used for the administration of law.