Describe the sources of law in the UK

    People were upset and started petitioning for more writs. So in 1285, the Statute of Westminster authorised judges to issue new writs but only if the claims were similar to the cases to those before 1258. This was the first act of parliament. Although this allowed for more Writs to be written out, the remedy still remained as Damages. People were disappointed and started to petition directly to the King for a remedy. This work was handed over to the Lord Chancellor who established a court to hear the petitions. Rules that were implemented by this court were not from common law and Lord Chancellor was not bound by precedent.  The rules were created to make sure that justice was obtained in the cases where the parties are able to provide that common law was not able to provide them with an adequate remedy. Thus, these rules became known as ‘Equity’.

   Statute Law is written down by the Members of Parliament. Statutes begin as ‘bills’. It begins with a draft form. Bills may begin as a consultation paper, sometimes called a ‘White Paper’; or a’ Green Paper’. This is a document that contains the proposals for the legislative change. A Bill must be looked by the ‘House of Commons’ and the ‘House of Lords’ and must be given the Royal Assent by the monarch. This is when the Bill will become an ‘Act’ and comes into force the date the Royal Assent is granted, unless the Act is set to come into force at a later date. The process the Bills go though is:

Report Stage

Committee Stage

Second Reading

First Reading

Royal Assent

Consideration of Amendments

Third Reading

This process goes through the House of Commons’ and the ‘House of Lords’ apart from the last two stages. Those two stages will happen after both of the houses have debated and voted upon the Bill. Bills may start in either house apart from the Bills dealing with financial matters which start in the House of Commons.

Parliament also has the authority to ‘delegate’ the task of making laws to someone else (delegated legislation) e.g. the council are delegated with the duty of making laws, i.e. Emergency powers Act (1920).  

‘Case law’ developed in 1865. Case law is often referred to as common law in many regions of the world, and is also known as judge-made law. This latter term derives from the fact that, while legislation is technically passed in most countries by a separate legislative branch, courts are able to apply legislative power through the use of precedent and case law. Case law is viewed by most people as a crucial part of a functioning judiciary, as it allows for courts to transform decisions that may have taken a great deal of time and energy to arrive at into a sort of genuine law, making future cases much easier to decide. In some cases, a judge may intentionally go against established case law in an effort to begin the process of re-examining a precedent and perhaps ultimately changing it. This often happens with precedents in case law that a judge may consider out-dated or irrelevant in the modern environment. By issuing a decision that the judge knows will be appealed, he or she pushes the case into higher courts where the old established precedents may be overturned in favour of a new outlook. An example of a recent case: R (Carney) v Bolton-at-home Ltd (2012). This case is derived by judicial precedent.

After the effective destruction of the European economy caused by the Second World War, many countries made legal moves towards more co-operations in the fields of trade and energy. In 1951, the treaty of Paris established the European Coal and Steel Community. Two Treaties of Rome established Euratom (European Atomic Agency) in the year 1951. In 1986, the Single European Act established a single market across the member states and in 1993 the European Economic Community became the European Community (EC) by the Maastricht Treaty. This treaty also created a new body – the European Union (EU). The EU included the EC. All the laws that originate from the EC and the EU shall be referred to as the ‘EU law’. this is due to EC not existing anymore. Treaties on a whole do not affect domestic law; but the law of the EU is different because these laws are transferred into UK domestic law by a statute – the European Communities Act 1972. So this statute means that the UK must give effect to any laws passed by the EU.

There are a few Minor sources like ‘Canon law’ (Church laws), ‘Custom’ (aspects of Land law) and ‘Roman law’ (Shipping laws). These laws are the little aspects of laws that have been around for a long time. A lot of present laws are developed from these minor sources.

All these sources contributed towards the development of the English Law to what it is today. From the five sources, three are still active today. They are known as the ‘Active sources’ of law. Statute, Case Law and European Law are all active and commonly used around the states. Minor sources and Common Law, both are ‘Inactive source’, although Case law developed from Common law.