4 What is law?

3 Regulatory law is secondary law made by delegated legislation.

4 Common law is law made by the decisions of the judges. It is also referred
to as case law.
5 Equity law is law created by the Chancery courts under the Lord
Chancellor to ‘fill the gaps’ in the common law. Although equity prevails
over common law, equitable remedies are discretionary.

1.2.3 Different meanings of ‘common law’

The phrase ‘common law’ is used in a number of ways, so it is important to be
aware of the context in which it is used.

Different meanings Distinguishes it from

Law developed by judges in the The local laws used prior to the Norman
eleventh and twelfth centuries to conquest
form a ‘common’ law for the whole
country

Judge-made law developed Laws made by a legislative body such as

through judicial precedent Acts of Parliament (statutory law)

The law operated in the common

law courts before the Equity – decisions of the Chancery
reorganisation of the court courts
Copyright © 2014. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.

structure in 1873–75

Common law systems – those Civil law systems – those operated in

following the English case-based European countries influenced by
system (mainly US and Roman law and which are largely
Commonwealth countries) code-based

◗ 1.3 Distinctions between civil and

criminal law
Civil and criminal law have separate functions and operate in different
courts. It is important to understand the differences.

Martin, Jacqueline. English Legal System, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/UNICAF/detail.action?docID=1588685.
Created from UNICAF on 2022-01-26 08:01:39.