Professor Mistrale Goudreau talks about the difference between a new law and an amending law.
Laws are distinguished according to their effect on the legislative corpus. When Parliament or a legislature passes laws, they may either be added to the legislative corpus, or they may amend an existing legislative text. The new law adds a new law to the legislative corpus. This would be the case, for example, if Parliament passed a Fair-Trade Coffee Act requiring all businesses to sell only Fair-Trade coffee. Rather, amending legislation makes changes to an existing law or laws. An example would be if Parliament passed an Act to amend the Elections Act to allow people to vote at age 16 instead of age 18.