Legal nonlegal rules LEGAL STUDIES 3 C Rules

Legal & non-legal rules LEGAL STUDIES 3 C

• Rules tell us what we can and cannot do or what we can expect in dealing with others. • Rules prevent or resolve the conflicts that are inevitable when people live or interact in groups.

• Legal rules: applicable to the whole community. They are made by a law-making body, such as parliament. Legal rules are known as laws. A legal rule is enforceable through the law (courts). • Non-legal rules: made by individuals or groups in society, such as parents and schools. A non-legal rule is enforceable by the people who make the rule.

• Make a list of everything you did today, from when you woke up until you arrived at school. • Now, think about all the legal and non-legal rules associated with your day. Make a list.

A law is a rule which: • Is made by the State (Commonwealth, State, Territory, Local Government) • Has a purpose, which is to regulate the behaviour of all the members of society • Can be enforced by the state, through the courts.

Why are laws needed? LEGAL STUDIES 3 C

Thomas Hobbes 1588 -1679 “Lif e is n bru tish asty, sho and rt. ”

‘Right’ and ‘wrong’ What makes something right or wrong? - consequences? - inherent?

Are all laws ‘right’? Euthanasia Protesting Medicinal Marijuana

Laws are needed to (page 3 of textbook): • Provide social cohesion and reflect values of the majority • Provide a code of acceptable behaviour • Protect individual rights • Provide mechanisms for resolving disputes • Meet changing values and needs

Scenario 1: A speed limit of 80 km/h will be in force on Tasmanian gravel roads from today (01/02/2014). The Government reduced the speed in a bid to increase safety on rural roads. Two-thirds of the state’s 37 fatal crashes last year were in 100 km/h speed zones, many on rural roads.

Scenario 2: One punch killers who were drunk or on drugs face a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years in jail under new legislation passed in the NSW Parliament in January 2014.

Scenario 3: Employment law mediates the relationship between employees, trade unions, and the government. Employment law concerns employee’s rights at work, employment standards, conditions and employers rights and responsibilities.

Scenario 4: Under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1999 (Tas), a person must not make a false or misleading representation in an application or document under this Act, knowing it to be false or misleading.

Scenario 5: NSW Police have charged nearly 200 people during this weekend’s three day blitz aimed at drink driving. Operation Drink Drive 2 saw police carry out more than 150, 000 breath tests on drivers across the state. Police arrested and charged 197 drivers with being over the legal alcohol limit.

Scenario 6: Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 – the objects of this Act are to: • Improve public health by discouraging people from taking up smoking, or using tobacco products; • And encouraging people to give up smoking, and to stop using tobacco products; • And discouraging people who have given up smoking, or who have stopped using tobacco products, from relapsing; • And reducing people’s exposure to smoke from tobacco products.

Scenario 7: A former senior Victorian corrections officer has been awarded $125, 000 damages against the Department of Justice for workplace bullying.

Scenario 8: Gai Waterhouse has been fined $2000 after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of negligence in relation to the race day treatment of her 2013 Melbourne Cup runner Tres Blue.

Scenario 9: Wearing a correctly adjusted seatbelt is one of the simplest ways of reducing the risk of serious injury or death in the event of a motor vehicle crash. This is true whether you are sitting in the front seat or the back seat and it is the reason that by law everyone must wear a seatbelt in Australia. Many lives have been saved and serious injuries reduced as a result of these laws, which require drivers and passengers to wear seatbelts if they are fitted to a vehicle.