INTRODUCTION TO LAW
The nature of law
Definition
Function
Categories
Law making
Resolving disputes
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Learning objectives
• After studying this chapter you should
understand the following main points:
• The nature of law, its functions and categories;
• The ways, in which the law may be classified,
including the differences between public and
private law, civil and criminal law and common
law and equity;
• The development of English law including the
emergence of the common law and equity;
• The basic principles of legal liability such as the
distinction between civil and criminal liability
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Nature of Law
The law affects every aspect of our lives; it
governs our conduct from the cradle to the
grave and its influence even extends from
before our birth to after our death.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Nature of Law
We live in a society which has developed a
complex body of rules to control the activities
of its members.
List as many of these activities as you can
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Nature of Law
There are, however, other aspects to law that
are less immediately apparent, but of no less
importance, such as the inescapable political
nature of law.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Nature of Law
There are laws which govern working
conditions (e.g. by laying down minimum
standards of health and safety),
laws which regulate leisure pursuits (e.g. by
banning alcohol on coaches and trains
travelling to football matches), and
laws which control personal relationships (e.g.
by prohibiting marriage between close
relatives).
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Definition of Law
 So, what is ‘law’ and how is it different
from other kinds of rules?
The law is a set of rules, enforceable by the
courts, which regulate the government of the
state and govern the relationship between the
state and its citizens and between one citizen and
another
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Definition of Law

Black’s Law Dictionary says that
‘law is “a body of rules of action or conduct
prescribed by controlling authority, and having
binding legal force’. That which must be obeyed
and followed by citizens subject to sanctions or
legal consequence is a law
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Definitions
• Law is a system of rules laid down by a body
or person with the power and authority to
make law
• Law is what Legislators, judges and lawyers do
• Law is a tool of oppression used by the ruling
class to advance its own interests
• Law is a system of rules grounded on
fundamental principles of morality
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Definitions
Law is a formal mechanism of social control
and, as such,
it is essential that the student of law be fully
aware of the nature of that formal structure
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Legal Rules and social rules
• Legal rules guides and directs our activities in
much of day to day life
e.g. the purchases we make in a shop, our
conduct at work and our relationship with the
state
• Social rules are merely social conventions or
perceptions of proper behavior and are also a
means of controlling social behavior. E.g.
littering the floor
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS
PREZ 17/18
Functions of Law
Try and list as many functions of law as you
can think of
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Functions of Law
In a nation, the law can serve to
(1) keep the peace,
(2) maintain the status quo,
(3) preserve individual rights,
(4) protect minorities against majorities,
(5) promote social justice, and
(6) provide for orderly social change.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
In this book we are concerned with one
specific area of law:
the rules which affect the business world.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
Commercial law, more commonly referred to
as Business law is defined as “the body of law
that governs business and commercial
transactions”.
It is often considered to be a branch of civil
law and deals with issues of both a private
and public nature.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
Another writer defines Commercial law as
that which is concerned with “the obligations
between parties to a commercial transaction
and the relationship with the rules of personal
property”.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
The Body of Law – The body of law refers to
all laws enacted by man within a particular
jurisdiction, including rules, regulations,
orders, and protocols, custom or otherwise
that have the effect of regulating commercial
activity
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
 Sources
 Article 11(1) of the 1992 Constitution lists the sources
of Ghana Law as follows:
• The Constitution
• Enactments made by or under the authority of
Parliament established by this Constitution
• Any orders, rules and regulations made by any person
or authority under a power conferred by this
Constitution
• The existing law; and
• The common law
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
Commercial Transactions – A ‘commercial
transaction’.
The word commercial derives from commerce
which denotes an activity of buying and selling
for valuable consideration
Thus, neither a voluntary act nor the receipt
of a gift will class as a commercial transaction
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
The nature of a commercial transaction can be
found in Rule 2 of Order 58 of the High Court
Civil Procedure rules 2004 (C.I.47) which
describes the nature of a commercial claim as
follows:
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
• “A Commercial claim is any claim arising out of trade
and commerce and includes any claim relating to:
• The formation or governance of a business or
commercial organization
• The winding up or bankruptcy of a Commercial or
business or commercial organization or corporate
persons.
• The restructuring or payment of commercial debts by
or to business or commercial organization or person.
• A business document or contract
• The export or import or contract
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
• The export or import of goods
• The carriage of goods by sea, air, land or
pipeline
• The exploration of oil and gas reserves
• Insurance and re-insurance
• Banking and financial services
• Business agency
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
• Disputes involving Commercial Arbitration and
other settlements awards
• Intellectual property rights, including patents,
copyrights, and trademarks.
• Tax matters
• Commercial fraud
• Application under the Companies Code, 1963
(Act 179
• Other claims of commercial nature
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
The history of Business Law or Commercial
law can be traced back to its roots in the
development of mercantile law in England
back in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
 Its early development was closely
connected with the growth and expansion of
the jurisdiction of the common law courts
over the many local courts that evolved after
the Norman Conquest in 1066
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
Modern day Commercial law has no defined
boundaries and has a wide compass covering
such areas as tort law, contract law, company
law, insurance law, tax law, agency law,
partnership law, transport law, sale of goods,
hire purchase law and much more to mention
but a few
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
We shall consider such matters as:
• the requirements that must be observed to
start a business venture,
• the rights and duties which arise from
business transactions and
• the consequences of business failure
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Business Law
In order to understand the legal implications
of business activities, it is first necessary to
examine some basic features of our legal
system
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Features of the Ghana Legal System
It is important to remember that our legal
system is inherited from English law and refers
to the law as it applies to England and Wales
and in most of the Commonwealth nations.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own
distinct legal systems.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Classification of law
There are various ways in which the law may
be classified; the most important are as
follows:
o Common law and Civil Law
o Common Law and Equity
o Public Law and Private Law
o Civil Law and Criminal Law
o Municipal Law and International Law
o Substantive Law and Procedural Law
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Classification
Common Law and Civil Law
o these terms are used to distinguish two
distinct legal systems and approaches to law
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Civil Law
The use of the term 'common law' in this
context refers to those legal systems which
have adopted the historic English legal system.
Foremost amongst these is, of course, the
United States, but Ghana, Nigeria, Canada,
Australia many other Commonwealth and
former Commonwealth countries retain a
common law system
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Civil Law
The term 'civil law' refers to those other
jurisdictions which have adopted the
European continental system of law derived
essentially from ancient Roman law, but owing
much to Germanic tradition.
Foremost amongst these are Germany,
France, Italy and most of Europe
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Civil Law
Some countries like China practice a blend of
both systems
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Civil Law
The Common Law is known to be casecentered and hence judge-centered, allowing
scope for a discretionary, ad hoc, pragmatic
approach to the particular problems that
appear before the courts,
whereas the civil law system tends to be a
codified body of general abstract principles
which control the exercise of judicial
discretion
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common law and equity
the terms refer to a particular division within
the English legal system.
The common law has been romantically and
inaccurately described as the law of the
common people of England.
In fact, the common law emerged as the
product of a particular struggle for political
power
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Equity
Following the Norman Conquest of England in
1066 there was no unitary, national legal
system.
The emergence of the common law
represents the imposition of such a unitary
system under the auspices and control of a
centralized power in the form of a sovereign
king
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Equity
the circuit of judges travelling round the
country establishing the 'King's peace' and,
in so doing, selecting the best local customs
and making them the basis of the law of
England in a piecemeal but totally altruistic
procedure.
Thus, the common law was common to all in
application, but certainly was not common
from all.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Equity
gradually the common law courts began to
take on a distinct institutional existence in the
form of Court of Exchequer, Common Pleas
and King’s Bench.
With this institutional autonomy, however,
there developed an institutional sclerosis,
typified by a reluctance to deal with matters
that were not or could not be processed in the
proper form of action.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Equity
The response was the development of equity
to remedy the perceived weaknesses in the
common law system
 On an appeal to the sovereign, such pleas
would be passed for consideration and
decision to the Lord Chancellor, who acted as
the king's conscience
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Equity
As the common law courts became more
formalistic and more inaccessible, pleas to the
Chancellor correspondingly increased
and eventually this resulted in the emergence
of a specific court constituted to deliver
‘equitable’ or ‘fair’ decisions
The courts of Equity
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common Law and Equity
The division between the common law courts
and the Courts of Equity continued until they
were eventually combined by the Judicature
Acts of 1873-75
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common law and Statute law
the common law here refers to the
substantive law and procedural rules that have
been created by the judiciary through the
decisions in the cases they have heard
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Common law and Statute law
Statute law, on the other hand refers to law
that has been created by Parliament in the
form of legislation
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Private law and Public law
There are two different ways of understanding
the division between private and public law.
At one level, the division relates specifically to
actions of the State and its functionaries vis a
vis the individual citizen and
the legal manner in which, and form of law
through which, such relationships are
regulated: public law
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Private law and Public law
There is, however, a second aspect to the division
between private and public law.
matters located within the private sphere are
seen as purely matters for individual themselves
to regulate, without the interference of the State
(e.g. Contract law) and
Matters within the public sphere, however, are
seen as issues relating to the interest of the State
and general public, and as such are to be
protected and prosecuted by the State.(e.g.
criminal law)
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Civil law and Criminal law
Civil law is a form of private law and involves
the relationships between individual citizens.
It is the legal mechanism through which
individuals can assert claims against others
and have those rights adjudicated and
enforced
The purpose of civil law is to settle disputes
between individuals and to provide remedies;
it is not concerned with punishment as such.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Civil law and Criminal law
public law relates to conduct which the State
considers with disapproval and which it seeks
to control and eradicate.
Criminal law involves the enforcement of
particular forms of behavior, and the State, as
the representative of society, acts positively to
ensure compliance.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Civil law and Criminal law
Thus, criminal cases are brought by the State in
the name of the Republic and cases are reported
in the form of The Republic v ….
whereas civil cases are referred to by the names
of the parties involved in the dispute, for
example, Ampofo v Lartey.
In criminal law, a prosecutor prosecutes an
accused.
In civil law, a plaintiff sues a defendant or a
claimant brings a claim against a defendant.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Civil law and Criminal law
In distinguishing between criminal and civil
actions, it has to be remembered that the
same event may give rise to both
A crucial distinction between criminal and civil
law is the level of proof required in the
different types of cases.
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Municipal Law and International Law
Municipal Law is made up of local laws or
subsidiary legislation passed by Government
organisations and agencies who have power
under the law to pass laws that regulate the
lives of the people within a Municipality
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Municipal Law and International Law
International Law on the other hand are the
Laws that govern the relationship between
Sovereign countries
Examples are the UN directives, orders and
conventions
Laws controlling the use of certain global
resources like the sea
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
Substantive Law and Procedural Law
• Substantive Law is the type of law or body of
rules governing a particular issue. E.g. The
Criminal code
• Procedural Law is the type of law or rules that
prescribe the mode and how things are done
e.g. The Criminal Procedure code
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18
The Formal structure
• Parliament
– Originator of statute law
– Delegated legislation
– Informal rules
• The Courts
THE END
TEAM BRIGHT @UCCABS PREZ 17/18