Roots of English Law

Question 1

Ratio decidendi?

Answer 1

The reasons for the decision

Question 2

Why was 1066 siginificant in English and legal history?

Answer 2

William, the duke of normandy conquered England and decided England would continue to use Anglo Saxon legal system instead of the England being taken over by the French legal system

England already had a complex dispute reslution system.

Question 3

What did 1066 show in terms of the differences in legal systems?

Answer 3

Europe had a civil legal system compared with England’s common law legal system

Question 4

What, according to the text, was the problem with the pre-existing Anglo-Saxon laws?

Answer 4

Anglo saxon laws are predicated upon customary laws whereby laws vary accordingly to local customs.

instead of a unified set of laws for the entire country. (common law)

Question 5

What did the Norman conquerers introduce?

Answer 5

The Normans added upon the existing English social structure to create an improved administrative framework

They introduced feudalism

Question 6

How does the feudalism system the Norman Kings adopted become relevant?

Answer 6

Feudalism was the premise of English property Law from the introduction by the Normans after their conquer in 1066 to 1921.

Question 7

Describe feudalism

Answer 7

A land ownership system the Normans introduced to England that is based on social hierarchy . The Crown would own and control all the lands followed by the nobles who ** (tenants in chief)** being delegated land by Crown. The sub-tenants had land tenure from their grant by tenants in chief and the process of descending land delegation continued down to **land-holding freeman **

Question 8

What is the meaning of ‘tenant’ and land ‘tenure’?

Answer 8

Tenant:

An individual who occupies or possesses land or premises through an agreement with the landlord/owner

Tenure:

A length of time during which an individual has a right to occupy a piece of land or property

Question 9

Why did the Norman Kings (william) and delegates travel around England and what did they face?

Answer 9

To establish a common set of laws for the nation.

They received petitions from the public making complaints regarding the injustice of rulings made by local officials or their local administration

Question 10

What was the outcome after the Norman Kings heard the disputes?

Answer 10

The Norman kings established stare decesis, the legal principle - ‘like cases alike’.

‘to stand by decisions and not disturb the undisturbed’ Judges acknowledge decisions made for previous similar cases hence the same set of decisions should apply for alike cases instead of local arbitrary decisions

King’s decree was powerful and delivered unified justice

Question 11

What did stare decesis lead to?

Answer 11

The King’s rules expanded in power and superseded the local customary rules in courts.

Hence the common law emerged for england to adopt laws common to all Englishman disregarding individual customs

Thus expanded the Norman King’s jurisdiction

Question 12

What’s the basis of feudalism?

Answer 12

Land tenure was only given if the landowner swore an allegiance oath to their ‘lord’ who were those immediate level above in the chain in additional to landowner having tcommittted loyalty to King.

Landowner would need to also give share of their crops to their lord and participate in military service for lord. The lords role in this loyalty bond was to **provide security and assist tenants when needed. **

Question 13

What was the problem when common law was first established? What solved this?

Answer 13

To seek royal justice, individual would need to travel to Holy Land on Crusade where the King resided.

appointed Delegates of the king made decisions on behalf of the king. These included

‘Curia Regis - the King’s ‘court’ (as an advisory body to the King) and

the justiciars (viceroy to the King during King’s absences from England because they were also Duke of Normandy , owning large amount of land in France)

Question 14

As Curia Regis received greater quantity of requests for royal justice, specialist bodies were established. What were the branches of specialist common law courts within ‘Curia Regis’?

Together known as?

Answer 14

1. Court of Common Pleas (judges hear disputes ‘commonpleas’ brought by people, was in a fixed place westminister in London for 660yrs )
2. Court of Exchequer (financial advisors disputes about royal revenue which is why British Treasurer is now Chancellor of Exchequer)
3. King’s Bench - advise on general policy questions

These three combined make up the common law courts.

+ Council - resolve individual disputes

Question 15

Who are the *Curia Regis? *

Answer 15

The King’s loyal retinue also known as King’s Court who provided advice to assist King with decision making. Decisions sometimes were made by members themself due to large quantity

Question 16

What was the role of the Justiciars?

Answer 16

Part of the delegates and were made viceroys to the king, making decisions and rulings on behalf of the King.

Question 17

what did it mean to possess a writ

Answer 17

one has received written command from the monarch to perform an act

Question 18

Who were the Justices of Eyre and what’s their signifance to today?

Answer 18

They were itinerant justices who do not necessarily need to be member of Curia Regis and travelled with a commission to solve disputes around the country.

It is relevant because legal adminstrations were established in different localities in England until 1970s

Question 19

THE WRIT SYSTEM

What is a writ?

Answer 19

When a complaint is in made to the earlier courts,

A writ is a command by the King to the sheriff (represenative in county) to bring the individual whom the complaint has been made to answer the complaint allegation plaintiff had made

Question 20

In what way does the writ system remain relevant for common law court actions (such as tort and contract) today?

Answer 20

The notion of writ remains significant because it resulted to the use of causes of action that are legal grounds and facts the plaintiff must establish before litigation

Question 21

Why did the King use wager of law, what did it consist of and what is the significance of water law to the modern legal system?

Answer 21

For all cases, The King may have used** Wager of Law which **used local people to assist with assessment of defendant and help the King arrive with a decision for the local case

This was the origin of the jury system. In which today, juries are commonly used in criminal law however, can be used in civil cases.

Question 22

What was problem the Writ System encountered?

Answer 22

In 1258, it was the high demand for writs and when they were unavailable, judges in common law enabled ‘legal fiction’

Procedural problems in the writ system that underpinned common law.

a claim in the early common law courts was accepted if the facts and circumstances fitted within one of the recognised writs or ‘cause of action’. Plaintiff but establish ‘cause of action’ before litigating

Question 23

What problem did the King and his delegates encounter when they travelled around England to make decisions?

What techniques did the King use to assist his decision making in different localities?

Answer 23

Lacked local knowledge

1. Trial by ordeal
2. Trial by battle
3. Wager of Law for all cases

Question 24

Similarites and differences between wager of law and the jury system.

Answer 24

Determine if defendant was being truthful

Wager of law, local men were selected by travelling justices because of their local knowedge compared with the need for modern jurors to be impartial ( no prior knowledge or relation to event) indepedent and not a lawyer

Question 25

What is the difference between trial by ordeal and trial by battle? Describe each

Answer 25

• Until 1215, trial by ordeal was used to make rulings commonly for criminal cases. thereligious society, it was believed, Divine intervention would determine the defendant’s guilt or intervention following the ordeal that typically included burning, scalding (healing in time period = not guilty) hand or arm with boiling water or casting of accused in water (floating meant guilt)
• ** Trial by Battle** was used for Non-criminal cases whereby divine justice was given to the party victorious in battle. however, this method became obsolete by the end of 1200s

Question 26

What did the King do with the petitons and what did the chancellor do?

Answer 26

King delegated the petitions regarding injustice of common law court system to the Chancellor after handling it himself

The chancellor issued writs that were not confined by common law principles instead being based by Christian values that allowed discretionary judgement to be provided known as ‘equity’

Question 27

Where are jurors used today?

Answer 27

Most commonly in criminal cases but they can be used in defamation

Question 28

What problems arised with common law courts between 1300-1400s

Answer 28

Common law courts between 1300-1400s faced complex adminstrative and procedural processes due to high demand for court hearing and became more inflexible and slow

-preoccupied with precedent

Complexity and form was prioriized over pragmaticism and increased inflexibility

This increased workload and hence **interferred with achieving justice. **

Question 29

What gave rise to the creation of a body of law known as equity?

Answer 29

Equity, and equitable remedies, was established to reduce the procedural problems and inflexibility common law faced

Equity was dispensed by the Chancellor in the Court of Chancery being more flexible with its christian-based law.

Equitable claims were made in the court of chancery being based on plaintiff could seek remedy if they were morally deserving. 12 equity maxims such as **’ he/she wo comes into equity must come with clean hands’ **

Question 30

How did people in early 1400s respond to injustice of common law courts created by procedural complexities?

Answer 30

The people petitioned king regarding injustice of common law court system

Question 31

Did equity and common law co exist initally and was there any disagreement?

Answer 31

Yes equity and common law co-existed with no problems. This was until the 1600s when there was division between the Chancellor (equity) and the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench (common law) with the need for King’s intervention

Question 32

Compare and contrast between common law and equity in 1600s

Answer 32

Common law was administered by common law courts. Procedural complexities, plaintiff must establish cause of action to have legal right

Equity stems from moral and justice, being based on discretionary justice and administered by Chancellor in the Court of Chancery

Question 33

What was the result of the King’s intervention between the Chancellor and Chief Justice of King’s Bench dispute?

Answer 33

The outcome of the disagreement between the two bodies of developing laws (Chancellry and Chief of King’s bench) was the principles of equity and justice triumph over common law principles because it would support King’s royal position

Question 34

When there is conflict between equity and common law, what will modern courts follow?

Answer 34

modern courts will follow equity principle. This was the result of the King’s intervention in the 1600s to end the rivalry between chancellor from court of chancery and chief justice of king’s bench.