Legal System Today Flashcards
What is the legislature?
AKA parliament. They pass laws and create legislation. Parliament is supreme - Courts can’t strike down any legislation that Parliament creates
What is the executive?
Puts the laws into effect and makes sure they are working well. The Executive designs policies that will go before Parliament to be debated and passed into law. Consists of the PM, police, ministers.
What is the judiciary?
A system of courts that interpret and apply the law. They create the common law.
What is judicial independence and why is it important?
Judicial independence is the judiciary’s independence from other branches of government. Essential for “checking the exercise of public power and upholding the rule of law” - Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann
How is judicial independence established?
Judges have civil immunity so they can not be sued for their decisions, their salaries are controlled by an apolitical body and people in power can not speak out on their decisions.
What is the judicial oath?
“To do right by all people after the laws”
What is an example of the judiciary’s independence being breached?
Stuart Nash saying a judge made a “terrible decision” risks the ability of the judiciary to act without influence
What is an example of overlap between the branches of government?
Each Cabinet Minister in executive must be a Member of Parliament
Why do we have three branches of government?
Checks and balances. Having different branches of government ensures power can’t be concentrated entirely in one place and that no single branch of government can abuse its power or exercise undue influence in relation to the others.
How has the common law developed?
Code of Hammurabi 1792-1750 BC. Oldest source of law.
Roman law 43-426 AD
Roman law carried on through other European countries.
Anglo Saxons
Came into play after the Romans left England. Most laws were unwritten customs and traditions. The law took influence from religion and tradition. To determine guilt, you would take them to a moot. During the trial they would use signs from God; use a hot iron - if it healed then you were right.
William the Conqueror 1066 - William had control over the whole of England. William left Anglo-Saxon law in place. It made the law more common and consistent.
Henry II 1154
Introduced the writ system (A writ is How you get someone to court - King would command a writ to instigate legal proceedings against someone else). This writ system was too complex - if your issue didn’t fit into a writ there was no remedy.
Introduced a system of trial by jury - 12 men would come together to determine guilt.
Equity and the Court of Chancery - Linked with the unfairness that a writ may produce. Separate from the common law. The Court of Chancery can provide remedies in the interest of justice when your problem does not fit into a writ.
William III Signed the Bill of Rights Act 1688
This guaranteed the rights and power of parliament instead of the King. This marked the beginning of parliamentary supremacy.
The common law spread throughout the world through colonisation. English settlers took their law with them.
Explain the concept of diversity in the judiciary.
Currently 60% are male, 1 in 6 from rural background and 3.3% identify as not heterosexual. Having different judges means different perspectives on cases can be brought to the judiciary
What is a constitution?
A constitution “describes and establishes the major institutions of government, states their principal powers, and regulates the exercise of those powers in a broad way”
- Sir Keith.
What are the three features of our constitution
Unwritten, not entrenched, not supreme
Explain the impact of the constitution not being supreme.
Parliament is the supreme law maker and can amend, repeal or impose laws that change our constitution.
Explain the impact of our constitution being unwritten.
There is no one single document that defines our constitution. Our constitution is instead spread over a plethora of documents. What documents are considered constitutional may even vary from person to person due to the fact that they are not written in one place.
