Sources of the English Legal System and the Relationship between Legislation and Judicial precedent.
FC012 T2258212Khanum, F. Introduction. The present legal system of England and Wales has expanded over many centuries and has also changed regularly during this period. Modern difficulties and needs have led to widespread changes in the court system they include the coordination of the legal profession and the process followed by the courts (Ward and Akhtar, 2008). The English law consists of eight sources that include the Interpretation of Statues, Act of Parliament, Judicial precedent, Treaties, Equity, Custom, European law, and Delegated legislation. However, this essay will be discussing three sources of law, they include: Judicial precedent, Statutory Interpretation and Legislation . This essay will also discuss the relationship between the legislation and judicial precedent and the rules of the statutory interpretation. Sources of English Legal System. Firstly, the judicial precedent is also known as case law, common law or judge-made law. The judicial precedent also known as case law originates from the decisions made by judges in the cases before them (Elliott and Quinn, 2011). In making a decision concerning a case, there are two basic steps. The first step is verifying the facts (what happened) and secondly, how the applies to those facts. There are three requirements needed for judicial precedent. They include; the court hierarchy, law reporting, and
Opening statement prosecution Yorktown v.s Vasques
Victoria Borges NJLEEP Inc. "OPENING STATEMENT: prosecutor" May it please the court, and the opposing counsel. My name is and I am the prosecutor of this court. I also represent for the people of Yorktown. These people deserve to be aware of what's right and what's right is that Mrs. Vazquez should be in prison for murder in the second degree. On September 24, 2004 Mrs. Vasquez stabbed her own husband and because of this he is now dead. When the authorities arrived the male child led Officer Francis to the kitchen, where the crime was committed. The paramedics discover that the victim of this murder was stabbed nine times. The officer who saw this tragedy will be one of our witnesses in this trial today. A few other witnesses I should mention would be Mellissa Jenkins whom is the shelter owner that Karin stayed in. Her sister whom Mrs. Vasques said nagged too much, and because of something this small Mrs. Vasques was foolish enough to not stay there. Finally the defendant; Mrs. Vasquez, will be our witness for today also. This case is yet still undisputed that Mrs. Vasquez did truly mean to commit this crime. However the dispute isn't weather she killed her husband. Anything I say or do cant change for the fact that Orlando is not here with us today. The true dispute of this court is weather she has Battered Woman Syndrome or BWS or short. To conclude this
Describe the role of the House of Commons, The House of Lords and The Crown in statute creation. Including Advantages and disadvantages.
Describe the roles of the House of Commons, House of Lords and the Crown in the formal process of Statute Creation. The formal process of creating an Act of Parliament starts with Green Paper, a consultative document containing proposals for reform/new law. This paper allows interested parties to send comments to the government department. Next is the white paper: the actual bill that contains the governments firm proposals. There are two main types of bills, Private Bills and Public Bills. Private bills generally affect a certain area of policy or a specific organisation whereas Public Bills affect the whole nation. Public Bills include: Government Bills and Private Members Bills from individual MPs. When the bill has been drafted it is passed to the House of Commons, although in rare cases bills can start in the House of Lords e.g. Personal Bills- a type of Private Bill that affects one or two people. The House of Commons firstly have to introduce the bill, set a date for the second reading and have the bill printed up. This is known as the first reading. In the second reading, the House of Commons discuss the principles of the bill, questions are answered and the outlines given. Suggestions with expertise and amendments are made at the committee stage and then in the third reading the House of Commons look at the bill as a whole, here it is either accepted or rejected. So
Voluntary Manslaghter - Notes and Evaluation.
Voluntary Manslaughter Voluntary Manslaughter is the term given to situations in which the defendant would be guilty of murder (i.e. he had the intention to kill or cause GBH) but due to a mitigating factor he is only guilty of manslaughter. These mitigating factors are when the killing occurs when the defendant is under diminished responsibility, provocation or a suicide pact. All of these defences are set out in the Homicide Act 1957. The defences are only available to murder and are only partial defences, which means that the defendant is not completely acquitted; the charge is reduced to manslaughter. Provocation - S3 Homicide Act 1957 "Where, on a charge of murder, there is evidence on which the jury can find that the person charged was provoked (whether by things done or by things said or by both together) to lose his self control, the question whether the provocation was enough to make a reasonable man do as he did shall be left to be determined by the jury." The defence consists of two elements; 1.) Did the defendant lose his self control? 2.) Would a reasonable person have lost his self-control? .) Did the defendant lose his self control? This is a subjective test in which the jury must be satisfied that the defendant lost his self control as a result of the provocation. In Duffy (1949) it was said that there must be a "sudden and temporary loss of self
Differences Between Civil & Crimial Law
Alex Richards Law Assignment The Differences Between Civil and Criminal Law The English Legal System has been developed over many years and has split into two distinct types of law. They are civil law and criminal law. Each type of law has an important part to play in establishing liability but there are many differences between them. For a start, the purpose of civil law is to uphold the rights of individuals and to stop those rights being damaged. An example of this could be trespassing. The person trespassing on someone's land isn't actually causing them any harm, but is causing them grief and becoming a nuisance to them when they are an innocent person. criminal law not only protects the individuals within our society, but protects society as whole, and keeps order within communities. This includes crimes against people that will actually cause them harm such as murder, rape or grievous bodily harm. If a person breaks a criminal law, they will be arrested and taken into custody, where they will be able to talk to a solicitor who will try and assist them with things such as letting them know their rights, and aiding them during their police interview. If the case requires a court appearance, it will be brought upon the defendant by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) (which represents the state), and the person who they will be up against is the prosecutor. The case
Describe, the way it is decided in which court the criminal trial will be held. Include all categories of offence.
Describe, the way it is decided in which court the criminal trial will be held. Include all categories of offence. There are two courts that hear criminal trials; Magistrates' and Crown Court. To decide the right court for the trial, this involves the category of crime implicated in the charge. Summary offences can only be tried at the Magistrates' Court; indictable offences can only be tried at the Crown Court, while triable either way offences may be tried at either court. Summary offences are the least serious criminal offences and are sub-divided into offences of different 'levels' - level one being the lowest level and level five is the highest. The use of levels allows a maximum fine to be set for each level which is increased in the line with inflation from time to time. The current maximum fines date from the Criminal Justice Act 1991 and are level one: maximum £200, level two: £500, level three: £1,000, level four: £2,500 and level five: £5,000. The sequence of events where the defendant pleads guilty to a summary offence is as follows: . The Crown prosecutor or lay presenter from CPS will give the court a resume of the facts of the case. 2. The defendant is asked if he asked if he agrees with those facts (if he does not the magistrates may have to hold an inquiry, called a Newton hearing, to establish the facts). 3. The defendant's past record of
Causation. To establish causation it is necessary to firstly ask if the defendant in fact caused of the specified consequence of the offence.
Causation Where a consequence must be proved, then the prosecution has to show that the defendant's conduct was both the factual and legal cause of that consequence, and there was no intervening act which broke the chain of causation. The defendant can only be guilty if the consequence would not have happened 'but for' the defendant's conduct. Sine qua non" is Latin for "without which, not" meaning an essential condition, something that is indispensable. If the result would not have occurred 'but for' what the defendant did, then the prosecution has established causation in fact. Unsurprisingly, this is referred to as the 'but for' test; this can be seen in use in the case of Pagett 1983. The defendant took his pregnant girlfriend from her home by force. He then held the girl hostage. The Police then called on him to surrender. The defendant came out holding the girl in front of him and firing at the police who subsequently returned fire and the girl was killed by police bullets. The defendant was convicted of manslaughter. To establish causation it is necessary to firstly ask if the defendant in fact caused of the specified consequence of the offence. One way is to ask, "But for what the defendant did would the consequences have occurred?" This is also known as the Factual Cause. There may be more than one acts contributing to the consequence; some of these acts may be
Areas of PACE
There are several sections of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) that govern the search of premises and arrest powers; key areas of this case. Section 17 holds that police can enter and search premises to execute a warrant of arrest; to make an arrest without a warrant; to capture a person unlawfully at large; or to protect people from serious injury or prevent serious damage to property. Under section 18, after an arrest for an indictable offence has been made, the police can search premises occupied or controlled by the suspect if they reasonably suspect that there is evidence of the immediate offence or other offences on the premises. Section 19 explains that once police are lawfully on the premises they may seize and retain any item that is evidence of a crime. Section 32 states that after an arrest for an indictable offence, an officer can lawfully enter and search premises where the person was when arrested or immediately before they were arrested, if the constable reasonably suspects that there is evidence relating to the offence in question on the premises. Under section 24, as amended by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA), a police officer can arrest a person for committing any offence if this is necessary. Police officers must reasonably suspect that a person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit an offence and
It seems unreasonable to expect the ordinary person to behave like a hero when confronted with a threat of death or serious harm unless they agree to commit or to join in a crime. On the other hand public policy demands that some form of resi
'It seems unreasonable to expect the ordinary person to behave like a hero when confronted with a threat of death or serious harm unless they agree to commit or to join in a crime. On the other hand public policy demands that some form of resistance to such a threat must be encouraged by our law.' Consider whether the courts have successfully developed the defence of duress by threats in order to balance these apparently conflicting concerns. There are three ingredients of duress, 'The defendant's act must be done only to prevent an act of greater evil.' Lord Woolf referred to the Court of Appeal decision in Abdul Hussain (1999) where it was stated that 'imminent peril of death or serious injury is an essential element. Lord Woolf agreed that this was correct although he added that the defence should be extended to include acts designed to protect a person's mental as well as physical health from serious injury. In Lynch (1975), Lord Simon said 'the law must draw a line somewhere and... the law draw it between threats to property and threats to the person.' A threat to damage or destroy property is insufficient. Threats to expose sexual immorality are also insufficient (Valderrrama - Vega 1985). However although there must be a threat of death or serious injury, that need not be the sole reason why D committed the offence with which he is charged. 'The evil must be
Non-Fatal Offences - Notes and Evaluation.
Non-fatal Offences Against The Person The main offences are set out in the Offences against the Person Act 1861 (OAPA). The main offences are Assault, Battery, ABH, Wounding and GBH. Common Assault (S39 CJA 1988) There are two ways of committing this : assault and battery. Assault and battery are both common law offences, which means that there is no statutory definition for either one. An assault is also known as a technical assault or a psychic assault. There must be an act which contains something which causes the victim to fear immediate personal violence. An assault requires some act or words - an omission is not enough. Words (either written or verbal) can be sufficient and in Ireland (1997) it was held that silent telephone calls could constitute an assault. The important point is that the act or words must cause the victim to fear immediate unlawful personal violence. There is no assault if it is clear that the defendant cannot actually use force. The force which is threatened must be unlawful. The Mens Rea for an assault is either an intention to cause another to fear immediate unlawful personal violence, or recklessness as to whether such a fear is caused - the defendant must realise that there is a risk that his acts or words could cause another to fear immediate unlawful personal violence. The Actus Reus of battery is the application of unlawful force to
