The English Legal System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The English Legal System - Essay Example The UK parliament is the sovereign authority of legislation i.e. is responsible for the creation of Acts of Parliament. Before enactment, an Act is referred to as a Bill, both Houses of Parliament have to consider Bills and finally receive the Royal Assent. The most importantly is delegated legislation that is considered as a source of law.The next source of law is case law, the effective creation and refinement of law during judicial decisions: The judiciary main function is interpreting the actual meaning of legislation providing it with further creativity. The final source of law is custom. The common law represents a crystallization of common customs, distilled by the judiciary in the course of its travels round the land. A second possible customary source of law its rules are derived form specific local customs. In the English legal system restraints on judges are that the Judicial decisions are subject to modification by legislation; And the final authority to dismiss a judge r esides in Parliament but this can only be done by the consent of both Houses. However jurisdiction of courts supervises the use of statutory and prerogative powers by government ministers. Moreover "The validity of actions and decisions for which there is no legal authority or source or which are taken in flagrant abuse of the requirements of procedural fairness (natural justice) may be challenged through an application for judicial review." Carroll, a. 2007. In addition There are rules that underpinning judicial independence: By convention ministers do not criticize judges or their decisions - although in recent times some see it can't be applied on parliamentary questions relating to controversial cases. According to the rules of the House of Commons it is forbidden to criticize a judge unless pursuant to a substantive motion for dismissal. It is permitted to propose adverse comment on judicial decisions providing this does not reflect on a judge's character or competence. For explaining the power of precedent Judicial precedent means that judges must follow the rule of law established in the previous decided cases of the court of equal status or higher, if they are of the same legal principle and facts. Judicial precedent is a system of law-making by judges rather than by parliament. The decisions made by the judges, called precedents, are used as models for future cases. This causes certainty due to the prediction of outcome of a case on which applied previous rules of a similar case however due to discretion of judges to make law and over rule precedents and conflicting rules may also produce uncertainty. The precedents of the Higher courts are binding on lower courts and the court structure is hierarchical and the House of Lords is the highest court. With R v R - rape within marriages - wife no longer a property of husband. A court higher up in the hierarchy in a different later case can set aside a legal ruling established in a previous case. Overruling refers to the ratio of a case and not its decision. It has to be emphasized the