Legal System of England and Wales Flashcards
What type of legal system does England and Wales have?
Common law system
What is a common law system?
A legal system in which decisions about disputes are made by referring to both applicable statute and regulations and court judgements in previous cases involving similar facts.
The common law system is an adversarial system. What is an adversarial system?
The opposing parties offer legal arguments supporting their case and the judge serves as an umpire between them ensuring that each follows the procedural rules.
What type of source of legislation is a statue?
Primary - it is produced by Parliament and is formally known as Acts of Parliament.
What are the sources of legislation in England and Wales?
- Statutes
- Statutory instruments
- International treaty
- Case law
- Works of authority
- Conventions
What is the literal rule?
If the words of a statute have clear meaning, a court will apply the words as written. However, if there is some ambiguity, the court will give the words their ordinary meaning. This is the case even if it yields an absurd result.
What is the golden rule?
Sometimes using the ordinary meaning of a word would give an absurd result and in such cases, to avoid the absurdity, the courts may use a different meaning of a word. It exists to smooth out the edges of the literal rule.
What is the mischief rule?
It looks at what problem the statute was designed to remedy and rad of the statute to achieve this result.
What is the purposive rule?
It accompanies the mischief rule but looks at why the statute exists as well as what it hoped to achieve. It is the approach that is most commonly used today.
What does Expressio Unius est Exclusio Alterius mean?
Expression of one thing is the exclusion of another. If one or more things of a class are expressly mentioned inappropriately a statute, the things not mentioned are excluded.
What does Noscitur a Sociis mean?
When interpreting a statute, the courts consider the context in which a word is used, thereby using words in the same section of the statute to interpret the word in dispute.
What does In Pari Materia mean?
Upon the same matter or subject. It can be applied where other statutes may assist with interpreting an ambiguity in the statute concerned.
What does Ejusdem Generis mean?
Of the same type. It is used to interpret general words, meaning if a general word follows two or more specific words, the general word will only apply to items that are like the specific word used.
What are the two aids to interpretations?
- Intrinsic interpretation = within the statute e.g. read the statute as a whole.
- Extrinsic interpretation = outside of the statute e.g. dictionaries, explanatory notes, or Hansard.
What are the two main courts in the civil system that deal with cases on first instance?
- County Court - handles claims in which the claimant is not expected to receive more than £100,000 or £50,000 in PI cases. The cases are put into one of 3 sub-divisions:
a. Small claims track - cases involving not more than £10,000 (or £1,000 in PI)
b. Fast track - cases involving not more than £25,000 (or £10,000 in PI)
c. Intermediate track - cases involving more than £25,000 (but not more than £100,000) or that are too complex for the fast track.
- High Court - complex cases involving more than £100,000 or £50,000 for PI. Cases worth more than £100,000 will be assigned to multi-track.
What are the three divisions of the High Court?
- Kings Bench - generally deals with multi-track claims for all common civil law actions. Also contains within it the Administrative Court which deals with applications for judicial review against decisions made by the government on legal grounds.
- Chancery - deals with land contracts, trusts, and wills.
- Family - deals with cases concerning family proceedings including adoption, complex divorce, nullity of marriage, and dissolution of civil partnerships.
What are the alternatives to the civil courts?
- Mediation - involves use of third party to guide the parties in dispute to resolve the situation themselves. The parties make the decision how to resolve their dispute, the mediator does not issue a ruling.
- Arbitration - parties appoint a third party to decide their dispute. They will hear evidence and then make a decision known as an an award which is enforceable in the courts.
- Negotiated settlement - do not involve any third party and the parties negotiate with each other and agree how to settle their dispute.
What is the criminal court structure?
