Legislation is of fundamental importance in our legal system as the primary source of binding rules of law. The function of Parliament is to consider proposals and to produce statutes which change the law. The health of our democracy and the quality of our laws are bound up with the way in which legislation is produced.

The Statute Law Society seeks to promote understanding of issues to do with the legislative process and statutes – how they are made and how they are used in the courts and in society.

They have produced a series of videos called 'Making Legislation'. These are short interviews with people involved in the legislative process. These can be seen on iTunesU at http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/statute-law-making-legislation/id426105937. Take a look at these to get an idea of the way in which government forms a policy and turns it into binding law.

The interviews are with:

• A former Government Minister (Lord Falconer of Thoroton)
• A departmental lawyer (Michelle Dyson)
• First Parliamentary Counsel (Sir Stephen Laws KCB, QC)
• Parliamentary officials (David Natzler from the House of Commons and Sarah Jones from the House of Lords)
• The Legal Adviser to Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (Murray Hunt)
• A former Chair of the Law Commission (Lord Justice Etherton)

Watch Mr Justice Sales, Judge of the High Court, Chancery Division, introducing the series:

With thanks to the Statute Law Society. Visit their website at www.statutelawsociety.org to see what they do and for articles about statute law.