Area A 01

Question 1

Economic systems:

Answer 1

1. Planned: allocation of nat res are made by the government. eg: Socialist countries - China, Russia
2. Market: allocation of res is decided by market forces of demand & supply. eg: capitalist - USA, UK
3. Mixed: Mixture of both. eg: India

Question 2

Political systems

Answer 2

1. Dictatorship
2. Democracy

Question 3

Why we need separation of power?

Answer 3

To avoid concentration of power in a sungle body and prevent it from unanimously taking action of governacnce which may not beneficial for a country

Question 4

Legal systems

Answer 4

1. Legislature:
   * body charged with making laws in the country.
   * members appointed or elected
   * soverign or supreme
2. Executive:
   ● This machinery implements the laws made by the legislature.
   ● They constitute government ministries, civil services, etc
3. Judiciary
   ● It is constituted by the courts, who are charged with the responsibility of protecting the laws
   made by the legislative and those present in the constitution.

Question 5

Westminster model

Answer 5

It states that the senior members of
the executive should be chosen from
legislature.

Question 6

What is Law?

Answer 6

Law is the body of rules that exists in a society, under which its members operate. Law is therefore:
* usually understood in ‘local’ rather than ‘global’ terms
* often outlined in basic terms in a country’s constitution
* made by the people governing the country.
* historically in writing as societies changed from tribal/family government to nation states

Question 7

Criminal Law:

Answer 7

1. Deals with prevention of acts that cause a threat to public life, threat to individuals or citizens in general.
2. Burden of proof is on the prosecution
3. guilt must be roven beyond a reasonable doubt.
4. If found guilty, the crim court will sentence the accused and it may fine him or impoes a period of imprisonment. If innocent the accused will be acquited

Question 8

Civil Law:

Answer 8

1. Form of private law. deals with issues between individuals or individual entities.
2. Burden of prooff is on the claimant.
3. Liab must be shown on the balance of probabilities
4. Its objective is to put the claimant in the financial pos he would have been in unless the issue had arisen.
5. If found guilty - the defendant will have to pay monetary damages to the claimant or the civil court may order some other remedy.

Question 9

Who steps in, in a situation of confict of laws?

Answer 9

International law

Question 10

Sources of international law

Answer 10

1. International treaties and conventions
2. International custom
3. The general principles of law.

Question 11

Common Law

Core principles, sources, role of judges

Answer 11

Core principles:
1. Principles of law do not get irrelevant with time.
2. New laws are assumed not to alter prevalent laws (unless they are intended to do so)
3. Judges must exercise the law and use judicial precedent

Sources:
1. Statutes (laws made by the legislature)
2. Delegated legislation
3. Customs of the land
4. COnstituition of the country

Role of the judges in common law
1. Apply law in accordance to the constitution, statutes and previous judicial decisions (unless ther is a valid reason to ocverride them)
2. Interpret the statutes that are made by the legislature
3. Review the law and make sure it does not contradict the constitution or humar rights

Question 12

Legislation

Answer 12

• Legislation is the law created by the parliament as the highes sovereign law making body in the UK.
• UK parliament consists of the house of commons and the house of Lords
• For any act to be enacted the Bill (proposed Act) must be approved by the House of commons, House of Lords and a royal Assent by Her Majesty the queen must be given.

Question 13

Why are acts passed?

Answer 13

To:
1. create a new law
2. Authorise taxation
3. Codify existing law
4. Consolidate existing statute
5. Overrule an existing precedent.

Question 14

Delegated legislation:

Answer 14

• Process of enacting Acts of Parliament - time consuming and burdensome.
• Not possible to regulated every legal aspect.
• to facilitate law making process - authorise another body
• Legislation is done on the behalf of the parliament.

Question 15

What are the types of delegated legislation?

Answer 15

1. Orders in council - it permits the govt through the Privy Council to encat new law. The Privy Council is nominally a non party-political body of eminent parliamentaries. Orders in council are usually usedin times of national emergency, (mobilise the armed forces)
2. Statutory instruments - they are usually made by govt ministers inw hich particular regulations are enacted.
3. By-laws: they are made by local authorities or other local bodies. Application is limited to a specific geographic territory.
4. Court Rule: made by Court Rule committees to govern the procedure in the particular courts under the supreme court act 1981, County court act 1984, magistrates courts act 1980
5. Professional regulations - made by eg: law society under the solicitors act 1974 to regulate and control the conduct of practising solicitors

Question 16

UK judiciary : Supreme Court

Answer 16

• Highest Appellate court in UK
• Before 2009, House of Lors was the highest Appelate in UK.
• Its decision can only be challenged in the Europea Court of justice or European court of human rights

Question 17

UK Judiciary: Court if Appeal

Answer 17

(a) Civil division: Appeals from country courts and High vourts of justic are made here.
(b) Criminal Division: Appeals from Crown court are made here.

Question 18

UK Judiciary: Next for civil cases

Answer 18

(a) High court
1. Queen’s bench - Deals with issues realting to contracts and Tort (Common civil breach)
2. Chancery Division - Deals with issues regarding Land, revenue, copyright
3. Family Division - Matrimonial matters are dealt with here.

(b) County Courts - court of first instance for civil claims in contract,, tort, land and tenant, probate and insolvency.

Question 19

UK judiciary - Next for criminal cases

Answer 19

(a) Crown courts - they deal with serios criminal offenses, eg murder, rape
(b) magistrate’s courts: deal with other criminal offenses. eg minor theft, trespassing.

Question 20

Doctrine of Judicial precendence

Answer 20

1. Its the system whereby the judges fellow a decision passed in a previous similar case by a senior or equivalent court.
2. Some precedents are binding i.e; they have to be followed.
3. Some precedents are persuasive i.e.; the judge in the current case has the choice as to whether or not to follw precedent
4. The application of consistency is the basis of Judicial precedence, its rules are:
   * A precedent must be based on a law and not on a fact.
   o The previous court must be superior in the hierarchy than the court using the
   precedence. This allows it to bind the lower court.
   o For a precedent to be binding, the material facts of the previous and urgent cases must
   be the same, if they vary greatly, the precedent will only be binding.
   o A precedent can be over-ruled by a superior court. Since 1966 The House of Lords (SC of
   UK) can overrule itself

Question 21

Literal Rule

Answer 21

**Words must be given their normal dictionary meaning even though the resulting judgement is undesirable.” **

Fisher v Bell (1961)
Facts: The court had to consider the meaning of the wording ‘offer for sale’. It was an offence to ‘offer to sale’ offensive weapons.

Question 22

Golden Rule:

Answer 22

Where the literal rule gives more than one meaning or provides an absurd result, the golden rule is
used to ensure that preference is given to the meaning that does not result in the provision being an absurdity.

Adler v George (1964)
Facts: A conviction was challenged on the basis of what appeared to be a miswording in the Official
Secrets Act (1920). This Act made it an offence to obstruct a member of the armed forces in the vicinity of' particular locations, but not actually in’ those locations. The defendant was actually
inside an Air Force base at the time of the incident, which he claimed was beyond the literal scope of
the Act.
Held: The words ‘in the vicinity of’ a prohibited place in the Official Secrets Act were held to cover
the acts of the defendant which took place ‘within’ a prohibited place

Question 23

Mischief Rule

Answer 23

Used to interpret a statute in a way which provides a remedy for the mischief the statute was framed to prevent.

Gorris v Scott (1874)
Facts: The Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1869 provided that any ship carrying animals should
contain them in pens. The defendant neglected his duty, and some of the claimant’s sheep were
washed overboard and lost.
Held: Since the purpose of the statute was to prevent the spread of contagious disease, and not to
guard against the danger of the property being washed overboard, the claim failed.

Question 24

Purposive Rule:

Answer 24

It’s a modern approach wherein the court passes a judgment based on its interpretation of what was
the interpretation of the Parliament when passing the statute.

Question 25

Elusdem Generis:

Answer 25

it states that general words mean the same purpose as the specific words they follow.

Powell v Kempton Park Racecourse Co (1899)
Facts: Sec 1 of the Betting Act 1853 prohibited betting in a house, office, room or other place. The issue was whether a ring or racecourse was an other place for the purpose of this statute.

Question 26

Expressio unius exclusion alterius.

Answer 26

Where a statute seeks to establish a list of what is covered by its provisions, then anything not expressly included in that list is specifically excluded.

Question 27

Presumptions about the legislations, statutes etc

Answer 27

• A statute does not alter the common law.
• A statute does not exclude the jurisdiction of the court.
• Legislation does not extend beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the UK.
• A statute will not bind the Crown.
• A statute cannot conflict with international law. An Act should therefore be interpreted as
  giving effect to international obligations.
• A statute does not have any retrospective effect.

Question 28

Civil Law:

Answer 28

1. Historically developed from Roman Law
2. Principles:
   * Comprehensibility: Laws are contained in codes; they are framed as generic principles applicable in any suitable situation.
   * Certainty: Laws should be decided predictably in reference to above-mentionaed codes.
3. Sources:
   * Constitution of a country
   * EU Law
   * Statute
   * Administrative regulations
   * Customs of land
4. Role of judges:
   * Judges only apply the law
   * Judges create precedence’s which need to tbe followed by other courts
   * Judges are not supposed to interpret law generally
   * when interpretation is required , the judges may identify the social and historical purpose of the law and apply it.

Question 29

Common Law

Answer 29

1. origin in england
2. Judges can interpret
3. used in england, india, US
4. as judges can interpret the law, it is more flexible and can adapt to justify the case.

Question 30

Sharia Law

Answer 30

1. Sources:
   * Quran
   * Sunnah: record of what has come to be acceptable course of conduct, derived from sayings of the prophet
   * Madhab: schools of thoughts - Sunni & Shiite.
   * COnstitution of the country.
2. Role of judges:
   * Judges are generally clerics
   * Judges only apply the law
   * power of interpretation is limited

Interpretation of the law
* Cleric may refer to the Sunnah to confirm.
* Within the Sunnah; Ahadith - classified according to their reliability. Muwatatir (Virtually Guaranteed), Mashtur (less certain), Ahads (little certainty).
* Taqlid - theory that the law has been interpretated sufficiently and does not require further interpretation.
* Ijtihad - historic processes used for interpretating the law.

(a) Ijtihad - must not be carried out on certain metters. Must be carried out by suitably qualified person.
(b) Ijma - consensus of opinion of jurists.
(c) Qiyas comparision of tow things with a view to evaluating one in the light of the other.
(d) Istihan - concept of equity or fairness, exercised within the bounds of what the Quran.