INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH LEGAL SYSTEM

Few categories of law and its function:

Public order – Assist in the preservation of public order.
Political order – Underpin the political order of the country.
Social order – Ensure the society to be treated equal and fairly.
Economic order – Gives recognition to rights in property.
Justice –
1) To preserve order and to do justice
2) Order and justice do not always coincide

SOURCES OF LAW
1) Acts of Parliament
2) Delegated legislation (Secondary)
3) Common law
4) European Union Laws
5) European Convention on Human Rights

COURTS HIERARCHY:

Supreme Court

Court of Appeal

High Court

Crown Court County Court

Magistrates Court

LEGAL TERMINOLOGY
Claimant -
Defendant -
Appellant -
Respondent -
Injunction -
Judicial review -
Prosecutor -

LEGAL RESEARCH
1) UK legislations
2) UK official and departmental publications

CIVIL LAW LEGAL SYSTEM

Oldest surviving legal tradition in the world and known as codified
system. Judges’ roles to establish the facts of the case and to apply
the provisions of the applicable code.
Judges’ decision less crucial in shaping civil law than the decisions of
legislators and legal scholars who draft and interpret the codes.

COMMON LAW SYSTEM

More detailed and operates based on ‘binding precedent’ so the
judges in a particular case must follow the decisions of judges in
earlier similar cases.
DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE COMMON LAW SYSTEM
1) The importance of the judges and a lack of prominence of
academics.
2) The idea that English common law reflects national identity.
3) English law as a seamless web
4) The rule of exclusion
5) The lack of a written constitution
6) The jury in trials
7) Uncodified law

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CIVIL LAW AND COMMON LAW

CIVIL LAW
1) Given to doctrine (including the codifiers’ report) over
jurisprudence.
2) Doctrine’s function = To draw from disorganized mass the rules
and principle which will clarify and purge the subject of impure
elements to provide both the practice and the courts with a guide
for the solution of cases in the future.
3) Focuses on legal principles.

COMMON LAW
1) Finds in judges made precedents the core of its law.
2) Doctrine’s function = Encouraged to distinguish cases that would
appear incompatible to a civilize and to extract from these specific
rules.
3) Focuses on fact patterns.

THE COURT SYSTEM

Criminal Courts
The Magistrates Court
The Crown Court
The Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court
The Court of Appeal
The House of Lords
The Supreme Court

Civil Courts
The County Courts
The Magistrates’ Court
The Queen’s Bench Division
The Chancery Division
The Family Division
The Court of Appeal
The Supreme Court

European Courts
The Court of Justice of European Courts
European Court of Human Right

*Constitutional Reform Act 2005 has abolished the judicial branch

of the HOL and the highest appellate court now is Supreme Court.
TRIBUNALS
Judicial bodies which meet to hear disputes in specialized matters.
Consists of a chairperson who is a lawyer and 2 lay members who
have expertise in the matters which are to be dealt with.

DIFFERENT MEANING OF THE TERMS OF COMMON LAW

1) COMMON LAW AND STATUTE LAW
Common law is referring to the law found in decisions on the court
rather than the legal rules contained in statutes.
2) COMMON LAW AND EQUITY
Modern courts will refer to certain principles on remedies as
equitable, contrasting them with common law principles and
remedies.
3) PUBLIC LAW AND PRIVATE LAW
Private law deals between individuals where the state is not
directly involved. Meanwhile, Public law deals with citizens and the
state.

CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES
1) Separation of powers
2) Independence of the judiciary
3) Parliamentary Sovereignty
4) Rule of law