UK Law

7 Key excerpts on "UK Law"

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  The Law and the Midwife

  • Shirley R. Jones, Rosemary Jenkins(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 1 The Legal Framework What is law? Law is a mechanism by which a society determines control and order of its sub-jects. It is a formal means of regulating a stable functioning of society, within an ethical framework, but under political influence (Slapper & Kelly 2000: 1). Law formulates rules by which all members of a society are expected to abide. These rules are intended to prevent or deal with conflict, prohibit and prosecute unac-ceptable behaviour to safeguard us from harm; they may be national `laws of the land', which apply to the whole country, or local `by-laws' (Rivlin 1999: 17). Law determines what constitutes a criminal offence and how it should be punished and it provides a framework for the settlement of disputes. It is not difficult to imagine what the absence of law would create ± criminality, anarchy, fear. Law is also enabling, in that it promotes equal opportunities for all, including those with disabilities, while also seeking to protect all members of society, for instance, by regulating health care professions. Laws provide us with rights and duties: rights should be respected and duties obeyed. If this formula is followed by all citizens then it creates fairness in society. One way of understanding English law, which generally includes Wales, except with regard to the organisation of the health service (Montgomery 2002: 6), is to look first at how it is developing and then to examine how the legal sys-tem administers the law on behalf of the people. White (1999: 14) argues that our legal system is not systematic, as much of it is `. . . the result of historical accretion rather than logical plan'. However, some logical steps have been taken with the passage of consolidating Acts, such as the Midwives Act 1951 (long since removed from statute) and the Children Act 1989, where, in each case, numerous pieces of legislation were brought together into one, more coherent document.

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  Organisations and the Business Environment

  • Tom Craig, David Campbell(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The Legal Environment

  DOI: 10.4324/9780080454603-14

  Learning Objectives

  After studying this chapter, students should be able to describe:

  • the nature of law and legal rules;
  • the nature of and difference between civil law and criminal law;
  • the nature of and difference between common law and statute law;
  • the purpose and structure of the British and European Union(EU) judiciaries;
  • the types of EU law and the EU legislative process;
  • the key areas of business law and the relevant legislation.

  14.1 What is Law?

  When we consider how legal matters affect businesses and other organisations, we should consider it to be essentially a part of the political environment. However, its complexities and importance necessitate a more detailed discussion. This is the objective of this chapter.

  Definition and Purpose of Law

  A System of Rules

  In any society, the complex interrelationships between legally responsible parties, such as people and companies, need to be regulated. It is generally understood that limits must be placed upon activities to prevent miscreants and other irresponsible people from abusing their freedom in a democratic state. Such acceptation leads to the enforcement of ‘rules’. However, not all rules carry the same weight. A distinction needs to be drawn between legal rules and other types of rules. We sometimes use the term ‘rules’ to describe norms of behaviour in society. We may consider ourselves to be breaking ‘social rules’ if we act in an antisocial manner, such as dressing in an unconventional way, or if we are rude or insulting to others. Within organisations, rules are imposed to facilitate normal functioning and may take the form of rigid procedures and limits of behaviour, such as a rule that receipts must be provided to support all expense claims.

  Legal rules are different from social and other rules. They are characterised by the fact that they are enforceable by the judiciary which acts on behalf of the state. So whereas the de facto

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  Politics and Government of the United Kingdom

  • (Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Learning Press

    (Publisher)

  It refers to the legal system administered by the courts in England and Wales, which rule on both civil and criminal matters. English law is renowned as being the mother of the common law, and is based of those principles. English law can be described as having its own distinct legal doctrine, distinct from civil law legal systems since 1189. There has been no major codification of the law, and subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in court, applying statute, precedent and common sense to the facts before them, to give explanatory judgements of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases ( stare decisis ).. In the early centuries, the justices and judges were responsible for adapting the Writ system to meet everyday needs, applying a mixture of precedent and common sense to build up a body of internally consistent law, e.g., the Law Merchant began in the Pie-Powder Courts see Court of Piepowder (a corruption of the French pieds-poudrés or dusty feet, meaning ad hoc marketplace courts). As Parliament developed in strength and, subject to the doctrine of separation of powers, legislation gradually overtook judicial law-making, so that today judges are only able to innovate in certain very narrowly-defined areas. Time before 1189 was defined in 1276 as being time immemorial. ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, and often has persuasive effect in its other jurisdictions.

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  British Overseas Territories Law

  • Ian Hendry, Susan Dickson(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  1 1884 c 31. 8 Sources of Law T HE BODY OF law in force in each British overseas territory is distinct and unique to that territory. This chapter examines the sources of law in the ter-ritories in necessarily general terms. The Annex contains information about the sources of law in each individual territory. Broadly speaking, the law in force in each territory consists of statute law, whether made locally or in the United Kingdom (and exceptionally elsewhere), the common law and rules of equity of England to the extent applicable in the territory, and juris-prudence resulting from judicial decisions. Each of these sources of law is considered in turn. STATUTE LAW The corpus of statute law in force in any territory consists of legislation enacted or made in the United Kingdom and legislation enacted by the local legislature of the territory, and exceptionally legislation made elsewhere. Some UK statutes apply directly, but others are incorporated or imported into the law of the territory by one means or another. A. Legislation Enacted or Made in the United Kingdom 1. Acts of Parliament Acts of the UK Parliament may apply to a territory expressly or by necessary intend-ment. Otherwise they do not. Modern practice is to make express provision. It is therefore necessary to examine the terms of each Act to determine whether it extends to one or more territories. Few Acts of Parliament are in practice extended to the territories. Those that apply to all usually deal with matters that require uniform treatment throughout British territory. Some old Acts are still important and applied from time to time, such as the Colonial Prisoners Removal Act 1884. 1 Recent important examples are 146 Sources of Law 2 1981 c 61: see s 53(5). 3 2002 c 8: see s 8(4).

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  A.V. Dicey and the Common Law Constitutional Tradition

  A Legal Turn of Mind

  • Mark D. Walters(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  8 The Law of Parliamentary Sovereignty Law is the command of a sovereign who occupies the privileged position of one who is beyond command and above law – or so at least Jeremy Bentham and John Austin thought. A. V. Dicey thought differently. The idea of parliamentary sovereignty that Dicey placed at the centre of the British constitution is one that is enveloped within rather than set apart from the domain of law. There is a law of parliamentary sovereignty, and that law is the ordinary law of England. Dicey began his explication of parliamentary sovereignty by defining ‘Parliament’ as meaning the ‘King, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons’, or, in other words, the ‘King in Parliament’. 1 Having identi- fied Parliament in this way, Dicey then explained its ‘sovereignty’: Parliament thus defined has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever; and, further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament. A law may, for our present purposes, be defined as ‘any rule which will be enforced by the Courts.’ The principle then of Parliamentary sovereignty may, looked at from its positive side, be thus described; any Act of Parliament, or any part of an Act of Parliament, which makes a new law, or repeals or modifies an existing law, will be obeyed by the Courts. The same principle, looked at from its negative side, may be thus stated; there is no person or body of persons who can, under the English constitution, make rules which override or derogate from an Act of Parliament, or which (to express the same thing in other words) will be enforced by the Courts in contravention of an Act of Parliament. 2 These words are among the most recognisable and influential within the canon of common law literature. They draw into sharp relief a distinctive conception of legislative power as complete, plenary and supreme.

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  Duelling for Supremacy

  International Law vs. National Fundamental Principles

  • Fulvio Maria Palombino(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Because the crime in customary international law was not reflected in the UK’s criminal law, Margaret Jones was denied a defence. In an unwritten constitution like Britain’s, where there are few formal legal restrictions on Parliament’s power to change the law, the principle of legality helps to protect rights. In Simms Lord Hoffmann set out the authoritative account of this principle. In the absence of express language, or necessary implication to the contrary, the courts will presume that even the most general words were intended to be subject to the basic rights of the individual. 65 Congress cannot validly enact legislation that conflicts with the provision of the Bill of Rights; the Westminster Parliament is able to do so. It may not, however, do so by implication: it must pay the political price in full. As we will see, the principle would apply even if the UK’s international obligations are embodied in primary legislation. In this section, we have set out the basic principles that explain how UK courts approach questions that engage international law. 66 In the next section, we will show how these principles affect cases in which international and municipal law make competing demands. 3 how uk courts deal with conflicting rules of international and municipal law In this section, we explore how the constitutional rules set out in Section 2 create dissonance between municipal and international law. There are at least three ways in which a conflict might arise between international law and the law of the United Kingdom. The UK could breach a treaty obligation; it could fail to implement a rule of customary international law; and it could fail to comply with a normative act of an international organisation. We will consider each of these categories in turn. 64 F. Berman, ‘Jurisdiction: The State’, in P. Capps, M. Evans, and S. Konstantinidis (eds.), Asserting Jurisdiction (Hart, 2003), p. 11. 65 R (Simms) v Secretary of State [2000] 2 A.C. 115, 131.

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  The Law and Practice of Expulsion and Exclusion from the United Kingdom

  Deportation, Removal, Exclusion and Deprivation of Citizenship

  • Eric Fripp(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Hart Publishing

    (Publisher)

  It means that there is no source of law higher than—ie more authoritative than—an Act of Parliament. Parliament may by statute make or unmake any law, including a law that is violative of international law or that alters a principle of the common law. And the courts are obliged to uphold and enforce it. 7 As to Scotland, it has been suggested that some provisions of the Acts of Union of 1707 are so fundamental that they lie beyond amendment or nullification by ordinary statute. In the Inner House of the Court of Session, the Lord President, Lord Cooper, in MacCormick v Lord Advocate [1953] ScotCS CSIH 2, 1953 SC 396 at 411–12 reserved his opinion on the question of whether provisions in Article XIX of the Treaty of Union, preserving the Court of Session and the established laws relating to private right administered in Scotland, were 7 European Scrutiny Committee, The EU Bill and Parliamentary Sovereignty , Written Evidence ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 6 December 2010, Written Evidence from Professor Adam Tomkins, John Millar Professor of Public Law, University of Glasgow. 7.10 7.11 7.12 216 Part B – Legal Framework not susceptible to amendment or nullification by ordinary statute. In England and Wales, there has as yet been no case in which the courts have refused to acknowledge as valid a statutory provision considered to violate a common law fundamental right. It is clear that this could occur only in an extreme case. In Taylor v New Zealand Poultry Board [1984] 1 NZLR 394 at 398, the President of the New Zealand Court of Appeal observed that some ‘common law rights presumably lie so deep that even Parliament could not override them’.

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