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English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The judiciary is independent , and legal principles like fairness , equality before the law , and the right to a fair trial are foundational to the system.
Legal systems of the world. The contemporary national legal systems are generally based on one of four major legal traditions: civil law, common law, customary law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the legal system of each country is shaped by its unique history and so incorporates individual variations. [1]
English and Welsh law can be described as having its own legal doctrine, distinct from civil law legal systems since 1189. There has been no major codification of the law, rather the law is developed by judges in court , applying statute , precedent and case-by-case reasoning to give explanatory judgments of the relevant legal principles.
Civil law is sometimes referred to as neo-Roman law, Romano-Germanic law or Continental law. The expression "civil law" is a translation of Latin jus civile, or "citizens' law", which was the late imperial term for its legal system, as opposed to the laws governing conquered peoples (jus gentium); hence, the Justinian Code's title Corpus Juris Civilis.
The primary contrast between the two systems is the role of written decisions and precedent as a source of law (one of the defining features of common law legal systems). [42] [15] While Common law systems place great weight on precedent, [90] civil law judges tend to give less weight to judicial precedent. [91]
H. Patrick Glenn argued that legal systems were a structurally inadequate way of thinking about law because they failed to capture the epistemic and ill-defined nature of law, arguing for legal traditions as a better unit of analysis. [12] Scholarly opinions on whether international law is a legal system have varied.
Thus, common law is declaratory, and this is often retrospective in effect. For example, see Shaw v DPP [1] and R v Knuller. [2] In the search for justice and fairness, there is a tension between the needs for, on one hand, predictability and stability, and "up-to date law", on the other. [3] There is a hierarchy of courts, and a hierarchy of ...
Legal practice is sometimes used to distinguish the body of judicial or administrative precedents, rules, policies, customs, and doctrines from legislative enactments such as statutes and constitutions which might be called "laws" in the strict sense of being commands to the general public, rather than only to a set of parties.