Legal Foundations
What are the three arms of government under the separation of powers?
Legislature, executive and judiciary.
What does redress mean?
A remedy or way of correcting a legal wrong.
What is the main role of a coroner?
To investigate certain deaths and determine how and why the person died.
What are the two main legal systems?
Adversarial and inquisitorial.
A dispute occurs between two neighbours. Is this usually public law or private law?
Private law.
What is the main purpose of a referendum in Australia?
To allow Australians to vote on a proposed change to the Constitution.
What is procedural fairness?
The right to a fair decision-making process.
What does the Administrative Review Tribunal do?
It reviews certain government decisions.
In an adversarial system, who presents the evidence and arguments?
The opposing parties and their lawyers.
Parliament passes a new Act. Is this common law or statute law?
Statute law.
What is the difference between public law and private law?
Public law deals with government and the state, while private law deals with disputes between individuals or organisations.
What is a contract?
A legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties.
What is external review?
When a decision is reviewed by an independent body outside the organisation that made the original decision.
What is one main difference between adversarial and inquisitorial systems?
In an adversarial system the parties present the case, while in an inquisitorial system the judge takes a more active role.
A judge creates a legal principle while deciding a case. What type of law may this become?
Common law.
What is the difference between common law and statute law?
Common law is developed through court decisions, while statute law is made by Parliament.
Name two things that may be needed to form a valid contract.
Any two of offer, acceptance, consideration or intention to create legal relations.
What is the role of the International Court of Justice?
To settle legal disputes between countries.
What is the difference between tyranny and anarchy?
Tyranny involves excessive government control, while anarchy involves little or no effective government control.
A government decision is independently reviewed by the Administrative Review Tribunal. What type of review is this?
External review or external merits review.
Why is separation of powers important?
It prevents one group from having too much power and creates checks and balances.
A person is not allowed to respond to allegations before a decision is made against them. What legal principle may have been breached?
Procedural fairness.
What is one thing a coroner cannot do?
A coroner cannot find someone criminally guilty or convict them.
What is the broad role of the United Nations?
To promote international peace, security, cooperation and human rights.
Parliament creates a law, police enforce the law and a court decides whether the law has been broken. How does this show separation of powers?
Parliament is the legislature, police and government are part of the executive, and courts are the judiciary.