CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY OF LAW AND REGULATORY CONTROL STUDIES

Department Urban and Infrastructure Engineering

AR–414: LAW AND REGULATORY CONTROL STUDIES

By

RAVINDAR KUMAR

Assistant Professor

Department of Architecture and Planning

NED University of Engineering and Technology

Karachi

LECTURE NO. 01

TOPIC: INTRODUCTION TO LAW AND REGULATORY CONTROL STUDIES

INTRODUCTION:

The subject of law and regulatory control studies prescribed for urban engineering students consists of four major themes for which the urban engineers need to develop their understanding. The first theme is Law and Regulations. The second theme is Property Rights. The third theme is Building Plans and the fourth theme is of Coordination and Action between Civic Agencies. Within these four themes lies the detailed course content and throughout the year the lectures and discussions would revolved around these four themes. The detailed course contents is given hereunder for the reference of students.

CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY

Within the course contents of the subject there are various concepts and terminologies whose understanding is the pre-requisite for the comprehension of this course. It is outlined below:

Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Or it is a written assurance of security for the weak from the powerful or for the victims from the aggressors.

Government is the body within a community, political entity or organization which has the authority to make and enforce rules, laws, and regulations. Or it is an individual or group that controls the large mass within a geographical boundary.

Legal relations mean a professional relationship between two parties that is regulated by law. Legal means something which has a basis in the law. Relations mean the manner in which two things may be associated.

Subjects and objects of legal relations can be defined as customers and service providers which are legally bound to each other such as Lawyers and their clients etc. In philosophy, a subject is a being which has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness or a relationship with another entity or object. A subject is an observer and an object is a thing observed.” From the perspective of Government subjects are the common people.

Physical and Jurisdictional individuals means those individuals which are physically jurisdictionally interrelated. Physical means any entities which are composed of matter and/or energy, as well as the physical properties of those entities; and not merely items of thought or belief. Jurisdictional means restricted to the geographic area under a particular jurisdiction. Individual means a person or any specific object in a collection. An individual is also a single human considered apart from a society or community marked by or expressing individuality as distinguished from others by some special quality. Two individuals may be jurisdictionally bounded together within a contract such as owner and tenant etc. Similarly people are always live work and enjoy within a context and each context has its own laws that are applicable to the individuals.

Local Government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state. In the context of Karachi Pakistan local government is the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) with Nazim (Mayor) as its head.

Legislation (or "statutory law") is law which has been promulgated (or "enacted") by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to as "legislation" while it remains under consideration to distinguish it from other business. A draft act of Parliament is known as a bill. Legislation can have many purposes: to regulate, to authorize, to proscribe, to provide (funds), to sanction, to grant, to declare or to restrict.

Act, may refer to as a document recording the legality of a transaction or contract. Act also means an act of Parliament i.e. a statute (commonly called a law) enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. It is not however above common law. In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow sense, as the formal description of a law passed in certain territories, and in a wider (generic) sense for primary legislation passed in any country.

License as a verb means to give permission. The noun license refers to that permission as well as to the document memorializing that permission. License may be granted by a party "licensor" to another party "licensee" as an element of an agreement between those parties. A shorthand definition of a license is "an authorization “by the licensor” to use the licensed material “by the licensee”.

Regulations are like controlling human or societal behaviour by rules or restrictions. Regulation can take many forms: legal restrictions promulgated by a government authority, self-regulation by an industry such as through a trade association, social regulation e.g. norms, co-regulation and market regulation. One can consider regulation as actions of conduct imposing sanctions such as a fine.

Professional ethics concerns the moral issues that arise because of the specialist knowledge that professionals attain, and how the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public.

Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of persons. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer, exchange or destroy their property, and/or to exclude others from doing these things.

Rights are variously construed as legal, social, or moral freedoms to act or refrain from acting, or entitlements to be acted upon or not acted upon.

Possession in the framework of law is the, exclusive practical control of a thing, in the context of the legal implications of that control. In generic terms it is the physical control and occupation over a property.

Title is a legal term for a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or an equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different parties. It may also refer to a formal document that serves as evidence of ownership. Conveyance of the document may be required in order to transfer ownership in the property to another person. Title is distinct from possession, a right that often accompanies ownership but is not necessarily sufficient to prove it. In many cases, both possession and title may be transferred independently of each other.

METHODOLOGY OF STUDIES:

The methodology of studying this course include lectures, discussion, online reading, field survey and data collection assignments by students with its power point presentation as well as submission of hard copy in the form of report and soft copy in the form of a CD.

ASSIGNMENTS:

1. Collect data from books or go Google and find out the definition, meaning and very brief description of the following terms and concepts:

Building Plans, Submission, Building applications; Procedural Checks; Ownership verification; Planning application; Advertisements; Site; Notices; Fines; Building violation; Analysis; Building proposals; Conformity; Development plans; Land use; Zoning, Planning criteria, Building byelaws, Design guidelines, Building line; Parking, Chamfer, Coordination; Civic Agencies; Consultation; Neighbours, Road Authorities, Line departments; Allied agencies; Completion certificates; Demarcation, Encroachments; Declaration; Demolition; Dangerous buildings; Litigation; Control; Commercialisation; Policy.

2. Download the KBCA Building Bye Laws in 25 Chapters from the following website and make its report. http://www.kbca.gov.pk/byelaws.htm  

3. Download the KBCA Forms from the following website and make its report. http://www.kbca.gov.pk/form.htm