The Hierarchy of Laws: Understanding and Implementing the Legal Frameworks that Govern Elections Generally, after presentation of a bill to the legislature, the bill will be debated and approved in principle, and then referred to a committee for detailed study. Alternately the bill may be referred to a committee for study before any debate in the larger body. The committee studies the bill in detail, may receive witnesses, hold public hearings and recommend amendments. It may also propose technical changes to conform to a standard drafting style. The committee then reports back to the full body. The committee’s report is debated and approved with or without further amendments, referred back to the committee or rejected. A bill that is approved at this stage is then debated in its final form for final approval. These stages may differ from country to country, but generally the process is similar. 4 In a presidential system, a bill must be signed by the president to become law. A refusal to sign may usually be overridden by a special majority of the legislature. In parliamentary systems the approval by the head of state may be purely ceremonial, as in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. What is the source of a statute’s authority? The authority of a statute is derived from the constitution or founding document of a state, which authorizes the legislature to enact it. The constitution will usually outline the subjects on which the national legislature and, in the case of a federation, the state legislatures, may legislate. Therefore, after passage by the legislature and the completion of the full enacting process (which may include the signature by the head of the executive and a form of promulgation), the statute has the full authority of law. Hierarchy of statutory jurisdictions in federal systems: National State or Province District or County Municipality The hierarchy varies from nation to nation but this illustration is a typical approach. In some countries, the central or federal law governs municipalities and in others this authority is passed to the state or provincial level. Municipal laws (often called by-laws) are usually drafted by municipal legal staff on the instructions of the municipality’s governing elected body. They must be within the scope authorized by the state legislature, and usually a state will enact a municipal government law, such as a Local Government Act, to regulate this authority. A by-law that exceeds this legislated authority, or which conflicts with a federal or state law, may be held to be invalid by the courts. Figure 2: Hierarchy of statutory jurisdictions in federal systems There are usually two legislative bodies in a congress or parliament, and the process will be similar in both. In the U.S., the two bodies (Congress and the Senate) may pass different versions of a bill, which then have to be unified by a negotiation to achieve a single version for approval by both bodies. 4 9