Sources Of Law Flashcards
(30 cards)
What are the three sources of English law?
Parliament: produce legislation(statutes)- the highest form of law
The courts: elaborate and develop common law (fills gaps left by statute)
European law: comes in several forms from different sources
What are the two types of legislation that parliament makes?
Direct legislation (acts of parliament)
Indirect legislation (created by local authority who have been delegated power)
What are the stages of the acts of parliament?
Green paper, white paper, bill, first reading, second reading, committee stage, report stage, third reading, House of Lords, royal assent
What is direct legislation?
Acts of parliament created by the passage of a bill through the House of Commons and the House of Lords
What are the advantages of indirect legislation?
Save parliamentary time (the parliamentary legislative process is a slow process)
Specialist knowledge
Flexibility (rules may be quickly and easily introduced, altered or extinguished, as and when appropriate)
Legislative process can still happen when parliament is not sitting
What are the disadvantages of indirect legislation?
Loss of parliamentary control
Volume and frequent change
Law passed by bureaucrats
What is statutory interpretation?
Sometimes there is ambiguity or dual meaning in the wording of the statute, judges therefore need to interpret legislation and to help them, judges may use a number of tools
What tools do judges use to help interpret legislation?
Intrinsic aids: can be found in the statute itself
External aids: the interpretation act 1978, reports, dictionary, relevant text books
What are the 4 principles of statutory interpretation?
The contextual approach: any disputed words must always be interpreted within the context of the statute as a whole.
The ‘literal’ rule’: take words at there face value where there is no ambiguity and the meaning is clear.
The ‘golden rule’: If the statute is ambiguous, the court will apply the least ridiculous meaning in order to avoid an absurd result.
The ‘mischief rule’: the statute must be interpreted to remedy the gap in the law which it was intended to correct.
What do the courts do?
Decide cases and create law (common law)
Law develops slowly through the courts
The English structure is divided into civil and criminal
What are the two types of court case?
First instance
Appeal (concerned with whether the first instance applied the law correctly)
What are the first instance criminal courts?
Magistrates court ( low level offences) Crown court ( more serious offences)
What are the appellate criminal courts?
High court: appeals on cases from magistrates court
Court of appeal
Supreme Court
What are the first instance civil courts?
County courts
Magistrates court
High court
What are the appellate civil courts?
Court of appeal
Supreme Court
Court of justice of the European Union
What is the law of binding precedent ?
two factors are crucial to determining whether a precedent (precious judicial decision) is binding:
Firstly the decisions of the higher courts bind the lower courts (future cases should be decided in the same way as older similar cases)
Secondly whether the facts of the current case come within the scope of the principle of the law in the previous decision
Which courts bind other courts?
Supreme Court binds all other courts (does not bind itself)
Courts of appeal: bound by Supreme Court, binds all other courts, bound by its own previous decision
High court: bound by sc and ca, binds lower courts, not bound by its own previous decision
Which court is not bound by its own previous decisions?
Court of appeal: however as set out by the young v Bristol aeroplane company it is supposed to follow its own previous decision when:
Two of the previous decisions are conflicting.
A previous decision conflicts with a decision of the Supreme Court (decision of Supreme Court must be followed)
The previous decision was reached in ignorance of relevant laws
Explain the case of young v Bristol aeroplane
Previous decision was made in ignorance of relevant law, there are two previous conflicting decisions
Name the 4 main institutions of the EU
The council
The European Commission
The European Parliament
The European court of justice
What is the European council responsible for?
Passing eu laws
Approving the EUs budget
Concluding international agreements
Coordinating broad economic policies of member states
Developing the EUs common foreign and security policy
Coordinating cooperation between national courts
What is the role of the European Commission?
One commissioner from each member state
Proposes legislation to the European Parliament and the council
What is the role of the European court of justice?
Ensure eu law is interpreted and applied in the same way in all Eu states
What are the sources of Eu law?
Primary legislation and secondary legislation
