legal exam one Flashcards
meaning of law
- set of enforceable rule that set down guidelines for relationships between people and organisations in society
- provides methods of ensuring the impartial treatment of people and outlining punishments
laws are
- made by parliament ot judge
- apply to all members of society
- enforceable
- discoverable
- create rights and duties
- designed and intended to serve the public interest
customs
established patterns of behaviour among people in a society or group
rules
made by groups and only affect people in those groups
values
values that society consider important
ethics
things society believe are right and wrong
characteristics of laws
- open to public scrutiny
- invoked without undue delay
- applied consistently
- allowing principles to be mitigated
- freedom
- access
- not retrospective
- human rights
- fairness
- equality
nature of justice
- equality
- fairness
- access
equality
achieving a just result that is good and fair according to the standards of the community
fairness
recognises that simply treating people equally does not necessarily achieve a fair result when they were not equal to begin with
access
capacity to gain access to the legal system
- knowledge of law and ability to get relevant information
- how accessible legal representation
- whether or not the court hears matters without undue delay
legal aid
- means
- merit
- jurisdiction
procedural fairness
- not condemned until their defence is fairly heard
1. adequate notice
2. entitled to hear all the other party has to say to the decision maker
3. entitled to ask questions, challenge and contradict the evidence of the opposing party - person making the decision should not be biased
1. declare any personal interest and rescue themselves and withdraw
rule of law
- presumption of innocence
- independent judiciary
- law should be known
- not retrospective
- aware of charges
- not compelled to incriminate themselves
- supervised executive arm of government
- monitored police processes
- must be known what happens in court
common law
law made in court by the decision of judges
4 meanings of common law
- distinguish judge made and parliament
- distinguish common law court and courts of equity
- area of law including contract law and torts as opposed to other jurisdictions
- countries that have inherited their legal systems from britain
characteristics of british law
- absence of independant fact finding by the judge
- lawyers acting adversarially
- presumption of innocence
- use of juries
- precedent
- reliance on oral argument by lawyers
equity
law is so straight in its application that sometimes decisions aren’t always fair so equity law prevails over common law. courts now apply both when hearing a case
precedent
limiting the ability of a judge to be creative when making a decision
binding precedents
precedents set by superior courts of record