UK Legal System

4 Key excerpts on "UK Legal System"

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  eBook - ePub

  Law for Criminologists

  A Practical Guide

  • Ursula Smartt(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  2 THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF ENGLAND AND WALES

  Overview

  Chapter 2 examines:

  • The sources of English law
  • The constitutional and administrative structure of the UK Parliament and its law-making powers
  • The nature of the English civil and criminal court system and its key personnel
  • The changing nature of other civil courts, such as the coroner’s court, tribunals and inquiries

     

  Chapter 2 introduces you to the English legal system, so that you get a good grounding in basic legal principles and sources of law. In order to understand how legislation comes about in the form of statutes (Acts of Parliament), you need to understand the set up of the UK Parliament before you embark on criminal procedure.

  There has long been a heated debate in Parliament whether the UK should have a written constitution, similar to its continental European partners, but the strong arguments protecting cultural heritage and legal flexibility in a multicultural society have so far prevailed.

  This chapter promotes greater understanding of the English court system to encourage you to participate in criminal as well as civil court proceedings as an observer, so that you can see how the law works in practice.

  2.1    Sources of law

  There are four major sources of law:  

  • Custom
  • Common law (‘judge-made’ or ‘case law’)
  • Acts of Parliament (‘statutes’ or ‘legislation’)
  • European Union law

    Custom  

  There are very few examples of customary law, but custom usually applies to local or geographical rights. Did you know, for example, that the law requiring a London taxi driver to carry a bale of hay on top of his cab to feed the horse was in force until 1976? Or that Welshmen are not allowed in the city of Chester after dark? Or that fishermen in Lowestoft have the right to dry their nets on someone else’s land? (see Elliott and Quinn, 2008: 94). Custom enters a legal dispute when one party alleges that they have had a particular right to do something since ‘time immemorial’. This has to be at least since 1189 (see Cawthorne, 2004).

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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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  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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  Law and Society

  An Introduction

  • John Harrison Watts, Cliff Roberson(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  31 Legal Systems Chapter Objectives After studying this chapter, you should be able to • Explain the difference between common law and statutory law • Discuss what constitutes common law • Differentiate between civil law and common law systems • Discuss the theoretical aspects of the U.S. legal system • Identify the pioneers and contemporary legal theorists • Explain the difference between “natural law” and “positivism” • Discuss how judges make law Common-Law Systems In this chapter, the major legal systems and legal theory are explored. The theoretical aspects of our law are also examined. The chapter also includes a discussion on both pioneer and contemporary theorists. Common law is considered as judge-made law because it developed out of decisions made in prior cases that were adopted as precedent. The name “com-mon law” comes from the idea that English medieval law, as administered by the courts of the realm, reflected the “common” customs of the kingdom. Whereas civil-law judges resolve disputes by referring to statutory principles arrived at in advance, common-law judges focus more intently on the facts of the particular case to arrive at a fair and equitable result for the litigants. The three major nations whose law is based on common law are the United States, Canada, and England. The common-law system was origi-nated in England after the Norman Conquest. It is used in English-speaking countries except Scotland and South Africa. 1 Colonial expansion transferred the common-law systems to those Third World countries formerly controlled by England. In some of the countries, like those with Muslim populations and India, the adoption of the common-law system was not complete. In those countries, portions of the system exist along with the traditional forms of their own legal systems. 2 32 Law and Society: An Introduction At the time of the Norman Conquest there was no uniform criminal law in England.

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