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Common Law
Common Law
The common law is sometimes referred as case law (individual cases) the judges check the previous cases then follow the doctrine (Doctrine of precedent). The common law is found in the records of several courts of justice, in books of reports and judicial decisions, in treatises of learned sages of the profession, proscribed and handed down to us from the times of ancient antiquity. They are the laws which gave rise and origin to that collection of maxims and customs.
Sources of common law: law made by judges by case by case Others Sources of English law: -European Human Rights -Law of EU Statute: Made by parliament William Blackstone made 4 volumes of all the corpus of the common law, he joined the decisions of the last judges and give a manual. Abraham Lincoln used to red Blackstone.
History
Building
upon this foundation, the norman kings after the conquest in 1066 (by William the Conqueror) developed more effective ways of centralizing royal government.
The
anglo-saxon kings of england regularly summoned the bishops and great men of the kingdom to a council which advised the king and occasionally served as a court of justice. This court calls
By the end of the eleventh century the king was entrusting business to his Curia, a body of officials appointed from the ranks of the highest noblemen, church leaders, and officers of the royal court. With the king, the Curia Regis administered all of the king's business financial, legislative, and judicial. From the Curia Regis developed the common-law courts, the Chancery, and even the Parliament.
Magna Carta
Magna Carta was the first grant by an English king to set detailed limits on royal authority. Through its statement of liberties, it sought to prevent the king from exploiting his power in arbitrary ways and it made clear that the king was subject to the law, not above it
The Magna Carta is one of the oldest documents supporting challenges against arbitrary government and the divine right of kings. However, the Magna Carta slowly grew in stature and is credited with hastening historical trends in the growth of Common Law and civil rights both in England and its American colonies.
Only three of the original clauses in Magna Carta are still law.
No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled . nor will we proceed with force against him . except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
of common law He made use of juries and reintroduced the sending of justice (sending judges) on regular tours of the country to hear cases for the crown.
Henry introduces 18 judges that rotate in all the country because they can be corrupted if they stayed a long time in a particular area. So, the judges have a common idea of law, not a particular for a shire.
The system of judges replace vendetta; the people not to take the law into their own hands. The court underpin the order.
The
earliest law reports are knows as the yearbooks (this contain doctrines, concepts and methods).
Lloyds Bank plc v Rosset [1990] UKHL 14, [1991] AC 107 Miliangos v George Frank Ltd. [1976] AC 443 Pickstone v Freemans plc [1989] AC 66 Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart [1992] UKHL 3,
Judicial Interpretation
Common law is comprised of the guidelines that are set forth from case law rather than actual legislature. Such case law represents all previous decisions made by judges according to the cases that came before them, which then act as a basis for judicial interpretation. Such interpretation constitutes how exactly courts provide their interpretation of the law as we see by way of the constitution as well as other areas of legislation.
.- Forbidden vehicles in the park. .- A wheelchair is a vehicle? .-No .-Why not? .- Because the judge only stay in the 4 corners of an act, the interpretation don't go further more than the unambiguous interpretation of an statute.
Bibliography
The Politics of Law by Geary, Morrison and Jago, 2nd Ed. Chapter 3 pp 31-61 English Common Law: Structure and Principles given by Professor Adam Gearey in University of London. (https://www.coursera.org/course/engcomlaw)