intro to law Flashcards
(25 cards)
what is legal precedent
a precedent or authority is a legal case that establishes a principle or rule, used by court or other judicial bodies when deciding later cases with similar issues or facts.
what is stare decisis
the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent, a legal document that obligates courts to follow historical cases when making a ruling on similar cases, ensures that cases with similar scenarios and facts are approached the same way.
how do the Irish courts use stare decisis
Irish legal system broadly divided into two branches, the civil side and the criminal side, each have their own specialised courts, “common law” system uses previous cases with similarities to determine the results.
what is legislation
it is the legal rules made by the Parliament
who makes the laws
The Oireachtas
what are the 2 categories of legislation
primary, statutes and secondary, delegated legislation
characteristics of legislation
Legislation attempts to provide for every eventuality-desire of legislator to limit judicial discretion(example: Employment Equality Act)
how to interpret legislation
Fundamental aim in interpreting legislation is to identify the intention of the legislature
first stage of a bill
Initiation - Minister responsible obtains permission of the house to circulate the bill.
second stage of a bill
Presentation -. Minister outlines purpose of legislation, general provisions debated
third stage of a bill
The Bill is debated section by section.
fourth stage of a bill
review the work in the third stage and bring it back to repeat the third stage again
final stage
Verbal amendments - very limited time, speakers can only speak once.
what does the president do
when a bill is passed by Dáil and seanad the president signs off on it into law, if he doesnt like it he can by article 26 send it to the SC to view it
what is delegated legislation
enacted by subordinate bodies given power by legislation
what is Bunreacht na hÉireann
it is 50 articles that go from institutions of state, fundamental rights, amendments and repeal of the 1922 constitution
what are the three approaches in law
Historical approach(what did framers of the constitution intend, Natural approach(individuals endowed with natural rights because of their human personality, rights superior to any man made right, they can’t be taken away by the state, and Broad approach(the basis behind the constitutional provision in question, what did that Article, seek to achieve?)
what cases can be used for constitution
CC v Ireland(did not allow defence of honest mistake) and The “A” Case, child rapists case re checked
European commission?
it promotes the general interest of the Eu by proposing and enforcing legislation as well as by implementing policies and the EU budget.
European Parliament?
directly-elected EU body with legislative, supervisory and budgetary responsibilities
European Court Of Justice?
Ensuring EU law is interpreted and applied the same in every EU country, ensuring countries and EU institutions abide by EU law.
What is Ratio Decidendi
is a legal rule regarding the legal reasoning behind the judgement of the jury or judge, case example Donoghue v Stephenson, snail in bottle, introduces duty of care
What is Obiter Dicta
it is used to refer to an opinion made by the judge. These are additional observations, remarks and opinions on other issues made by the judge. These can be attributed to the court coming to its decision
Doctrine of President(stare descisis)
The doctrine of precedent is the custom of the courts to stand by previous decisions, so that once a point of law is decided upon by a court, then the same law must be applied to future cases with materially similar facts.
