CIVIL
LAW SYSTEMS
THE SOURCES OF ENGLISH LAW
Ingls Profesional y
Acadmico
Law systems
(Source: Wikipedia. Author: Javitomad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law_%28legal_system%29)
- Court decisions are considered law (case law) and have the same force as any
law passed by Parliament (statutory law).
Not binding
Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law
- There is little scope for case law (in practice judges tend to follow
previous judicial decisions of the higher courts).
COMMON LAW
Common law
THERE IS NO STATUTE MAKING MURDER
ILLEGAL. It is a common law crime, so there is no
written Act of Parliament making murder illegal.
STATUTE LAW
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Statute law
Also enacted law
Statute law
Legislation since devolution (the moving
of power or responsibility from a central
government to a local government) forms
several separate entities:
United Kingdom legislation: applies to the
whole UK.
Scottish legislation.
Welsh legislation (Statutory Instruments only).
Northern Irish legislation.
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Statute law
STAGES OF AN ACT:
draft (bill) bill act / statute
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CASE LAW
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Case law
Body of law created by judges
decisions on individual cases.
Also called judge-made law
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Case law
CONTINENTAL SYSTEM: judges apply the law.
ENGLISH SYSTEM: judges apply the law BUT
also make the law.
- Judges apply their KNOWLEDGE OF LEGAL
PRECEDENT to the facts before them (+ statute
law, of course).
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