Intro and sources of law Flashcards
Ethics
Choices of proper conduct made by an individual in his or her relationships with others.
legal system
The totality of laws that regulate a state (i.e. a legally organised community)
Basic requirements of a legal system
- A body of laws
- A source with the power to create and alter those laws
- An institution/process with the authority to administer and enforce
Important characteristics of laws
- Accessibility
- Certainty
- fairness
- flexibility
Characteristics of the law: certainty
People should be reasonably secure in their knowledge of what they are doing and their understanding of its effects
Characteristics of the law: flexibility
The law must be able to respond without undue delay to the challenge of change at all levels of society
Characteristics of the law: fairness
The effectiveness of law depends upon its acceptance by members of society and that will not be available where a law is inequitable, unfair or unreasonable
Characteristics of the law: accessibility
All should have access to knowledge of the law, either directly or through intermediaries
Common Law
- description of the Irish legal system (and other Anglo-systems
- case law developed by the courts
- unwritten law
civil law
- the secular law of the state
- law directly concerning the rights and duties between parties
- private law
- descriptions of the legal systems of continental Europe
Canon law
church law
equity
law developed in the Court of Chancery to supplement the common law
legislation
enacted by/under direction of parliament
Public law
regulates the interaction of citizens with the state
e.g. criminal law, constitutional law, administrative law
private law
regulates the relationship between individuals within a state (e.g. contract law, tort law, property law)
criminal law
Body of law dealing with crimes and their punishment
The nature of criminal law
Wrongs against society as a whole
the nature of civil law
Rights and duties of individuals to each other
proof of criminal law
Beyond reasonable doubt (convicted or acquitted)
proof of civil law
Balance of probabilities (liable or not liable
substantive law
General principles and detailed rules defining legal rights and duties.