Terms Flashcards
Common Law System
A CLS is a system in which decisions about disputes are made by referring to (1) applicable statue and regulation and (2) court judgements in previous cases with similar facts
Civil law system
Most of europe has a civil law system. This is where law is set out in codified statutes. Rather than an adversarial system, the judge inquires facts etc.
Adversarial system
The adversarial system or adversary system is a legal system used in the common law countries where two advocates represent their parties’ case or position before an impartial person or group of people (jury).
public law
Public law is the part of law that governs relations between legal persons and a government, between different public bodies/ institutions within a state, between different branches of governments, as well as relationships between persons that are of direct concern to society
private law
a branch of the law that deals with the relations between individuals or institutions, rather than relations between these and the state
criminal law
Criminal law essentially relates to offences and breaches that negatively affect society as a whole, rather than just one person. This area of the law outlines what Acts of Parliament deem to be acceptable (and unacceptable) conduct in the UK.
civil law
Civil law aims to deal with disputes between individuals or organisations. Civil law cases usually (but not always) involve compensation or an agreement or judgement relating to finances. Civil law cases are filed by private parties, while criminal cases are usually filed by the government
substantive law
Substantive laws in UK are made up of statutory laws that are written down, codified and passed by a legislature in the United Kingdom that governs how people are supposed to function.
procedural law
Procedural law prescribes the means of enforcing rights or providing redress of wrongs and comprises rules about jurisdiction, pleading and practice, evidence, appeal, execution of judgments, representation of counsel, costs, and other matters.
statute
primary source of legislation in england. Produced by parliament and formally known as ‘ACT OF P’
secondary legislation
an act may make provision for another body, with its consent, to provide regulations to give practical effect to the act. This would be called secondary legislation.
royal prerogative
Crown Prerogative is the term used to describe powers held by the Monarch or by Government ministers that may be used without the consent of the Commons. he prerogative enables Ministers, among many other things, to deploy the armed forces, make and unmake international treaties
parliamentary sovereignty
Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over all other government institutions, including executive or judicial bodies. E.g. statute reigns.
the literal rule
The literal rule is a rule of statutory interpretation and is where the courts simply look at the words of the statute and apply them as they are written.
the golden rule
The golden rule of statutory interpretation may be applied where an application of the literal rule would lead to an absurdity. courts must interpret statute “according to the intent of them that made it”
