Chapter 1

September 9, 2023 1:14 PM

The Canadian legal law system Equity: fairness, justness, grounded in

the precepts of conscience
Historical basis
"Common law"
Derived from combining the old common law system and courts of equity

The theory of Precedence

In deciding cases most court apply legal principles in previous court decisions that involved similar situations
Sometimes some special cases can deviate from previous court policy by exercising "equitable relief" and there
is flexibility in the "decision making process" based on factual distinction between the previous case and the
current provided the end result is justified
Important and serves as a basis of predictability in the legal system

The common Law

A major source of law is "Judge-made law" - court decisions establishing legal principles

Legislation
Statute law is written law passed by a body of legislature
Legislation, also known as the acts, are forms of law that can provide the authority to make regulations.
When made in accordance with an authorizing stature, regulations are another form of law
IMPORTANT: Engineers complies with federal & provincial statures of relevance to her practice. She needs to be
aware of amendments and new stature

Public Law and Private Law

Public law:
Public laws set the rules for the relationship between a person and society and for the roles of different levels of
government. This includes:

criminal law
Constitutional law
administrative law

Private law:
Private or civil law deals with the relationships between people. Civil laws set the rules for:

Contracts & torts

owning property
rights and duties of family members
damage caused by others to someone or to their property

The Rule of Law

"Rule of Law" - no one is above law
IMPORTANCE:
Independent judiciary and court system provide us with a basis to enforce our laws and protect our
fundamental rights and freedom
Canadian legal system is also fundamental to business dealings, facilitating interaction between individuals and
organizations : enforce legally binding agreements, precedent theory provides a legal system to enforce legally
binding agreements, precedent theory provides basic for predictability of outcome when dealing with disputes

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