Law C2:sA – law reform

Briefly discuss advantages and disadvantages of an influence to parliamentary law making (12 marks)

One way that parliament is influenced is through media influences, an advantage of this is that the
media can raise awareness of issues, which is an advantage because it brings matters to a light that
we would otherwise not know about and now legislation can be made to resolve this problem. This
can mean that the most serious matters will be dealt with quickly because most of society will deem
that something needs to be done about the matter. An example of this is the coronavirus Act 2020,
and this act allowed the government respond to covid-19.

However media influence can also lead to knee-jerk legislation because the parliament may be
feeling pressure from the public eye, meaning that they would want to rush a bill through parliament
to resolve a matter as quickly as possible, this can lead to poorly thought out legislation, and that it
wouldn’t be though out properly meaning, they have missed important matters. An example of this
is the dangerous dogs act 1991, this piece of legislation was created when dogs attacked a number of
adults and children. And this act was poorly written because it was thought to be a knee jerk reaction
to media publicity.

Another way that parliament is influenced is through political influence, an advantage of this is that
each political party has its proposals for law reform ready and published in a manifesto during an
election campaign so that, if they are elected as the government, the electorate knows what they
want to do in the future. This can also mean that the government would be accountable because the
manifestos can act as a influence to make sure that changes are achieved, which increase to
influence to parliamentary law making.

However a disadvantage to political influence is that if a different party is elected in a general

election from the previous governing party, they may decide to repeal or alter some laws that the
previous government passed.