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The United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern
Ireland; Great Britain means England, Scotland and
Wales
The United Kingdom is a unitary state , but it does not have a single body of law
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own legal systems and courts

 The great political philosopher Montesquieu coined the phrase the ‘separation of powers’ in the 18th century
“Government should be set so that no man need be afraid of another”
Three individual elements of the state:
The executive, the legislature and the judiciary

 Parliament
 Courts
 The European Union
 The Council of Europe

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EU Law – law that emanates from the Institutions of the EU
Statute law – mabe by Parliament
Common Law (customary law, judge-made law, case law) – made by the decisions of the judges
Equity – created by the Chancery court under the
Lord Chancellor to ‘fill in the gaps’ in the common law

 The EU was established in 1951 by the creation of the European Coal and Steel
Community (ESCS)
 The UK joined the EU on January 1, 1973
 EU legislation has primary legislation (treaties) and secondary legislation (regulations, directives, decisions and recommendations)
 EU Law can overrule national law

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Two main categories of law:
Written (formally enacted) and unwritten (unenacted)
A statute is drawn up in a definite form of words, and these words have been approved by Parliament and have received the Royal Assent (written law)
There is no authoritative text of the Common Law
(unwritten law) – law reports

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Rules of equity grew up through the practice of medieval Lord Chancellors
“keepers of the king’s conscience” – initially claimants petitioned the king; in the 15th century the king handed the responsibility to the Lord High Chancellor who created a specialist court to deal with such matters (the
Court of Chancery)
Alternative legal remedies – more flexible
Equity gradually became more rigid and was fused with common law by the Judicature Act of 1873

 Unwritten law is predominant
 More precedents than legislative enactment
 Common law (the general law contained in decided cases; unwritten or judge-made law) means ancient customs , precedents and books of authority (writings of jurists)

 Statute Law: Legislation (enacted law; statutes or Acts passed by Parliament); the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty
 Common Law: Precedent (courts are interpreters of law); previous decisions by superior courts on similar facts

 Common law means judicial precedents, but also ancient customs and writing of jurists books of authority
 The subsidiary sources are customs and books of authority

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Customs are social habits or patterns of behaviour
“Conventional”rules
 Many of early rules of the common law were general customs which the courts adopted
 The customs must be reasonable, certain and
“ancient” – must go back to 1189

 The writings of legal authors
 Cited in courts
 Some books by prominent authors are as authoritative as precedents e.g. Blackstone’s
Commentaries (1765)

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The first legal system that became common to the whole country (England and Wales) in 1066 – after the
Norman Conquest
Prior to the Norman Conquest there were many different rules of law found all over the country – custom law
William the Conqueror decided to set up a central system of government that would include the justice system
Curia Regis (King’s Court)

 Common law is a native product of Britain
 It absorbed only a few rules of Roman law
 A unique legal system

 Common Law has grown rather then being made
 Statutes began with the reissue of Magna
Carta in 1225 in the reign of Henry III
 A large volume is added every year
 Much of the fundamental part of English law is still Common law

 Where Statute Law and Common Law come into competition, Statute Law prevails
 The sovereignty of Parliament is the dominant characteristics of English political institutions
 No court or judge can refuse to enforce an Act of Parliament
 No development of Common Law can repeal an Act of Parliament

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Certainty: the fact that decided cases are binding makes it certain that every future case which is essentially similar will be decided in the same way
The possibility of growth: new rules meet new circumstances
A great wealth of detailed rules: English law is richer than any code of law
Practical character: rules laid down by the cases are in close touch with the needs of everyday life

 Rigidity: once a rule has been decided, it is difficult to depart from it
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Lack of logical distinctions: Rules which are logically inconsistent with each other are sometimes developed along distinct lines of cases – conflict
Bulk and complexity – more than 2,000 volumes of law reports make the case law difficult to apply

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It has evolved over many centuries
It is not set out in any single document
It is made up of statute law, common law and conventions
Conventions are rules and practices which are not legally enforceable, but which are regarded as indispensable to the working of government
The constitution can be altered by Act of Parliament, or by general agreement to alter a convention

 Law can be classified by the type of law (the matters that the law is regulating)
 Classification by types of law includes distinctions between international or national and public or private

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National (domestic, internal) law – the law of a state regulating its domestic affairs
International law – A body of rules that regulates relations between states and rights and duties of individuals in their relations to foreign states and with each other

 National law can be divided into public law and private law
 Public law involves the State in some way; it is the area of law in which the state has a direct interest (administrative law, constitutional law, revenue law, criminal law)
 Private law controls the relationships between individuals

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Administrative law – the body of law which deals with the powers of the executive organs of the state
Constitutional law – the area of law that deals with the interpretation and construction of constitutions
Revenue law – the area of law concerned with income and taxes

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Criminal law – a branch of law concerned with behaviour that is considered to be harmful to society as a whole: the state (prosecutor) takes legal action against the wrong-doer in the name of society
Civil law – a branch of law that deals with disputes between individuals
 The injured party (plaintiff or claimant) takes legal action

 Law of contract
 Law of torts
 Family law
 Patents and copyrights