Introduction to Law:

Sources of Law,
Law and Ethics,
Learning Objectives

 This chapter provides an overview of some

of the concepts and principles which form
the background to the topics covered in the
rest of the course.

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How is the course structured?
 setting the scene
◦ getting to grips with key legal sources –
reading and understanding cases; reading and
interpreting statutes, reading academic
literature
◦ describing some basic characteristics of the
legal system (eg. courts)
Course Learning Outcomes
 That is, By the end of the course, you
should be able to …
Course Learning Outcomes
1. demonstrate knowledge and
understanding of some of the
fundamental principles and institutions
of the legal system of England and Wales
Course Learning Outcomes
2. demonstrate knowledge and
understanding of a variety of roles
played by law in society
Course Learning Outcomes
3. identify, retrieve and discriminate among
sources of law and sources of
information relevant to law
Course Learning Outcomes
4. synthesise and analyse a variety of
information sources to develop further
knowledge, construct arguments and
draw conclusions supported by
appropriate authority
 FUNCTIONS, FEATURES,
VARIETIES, CHARACTERISTICS

 Functions of legal language

◦ to establish rights and obligations
◦ to distribute information
◦ to enable communication within the legal
profession
Legal Foundations

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 Learning outcome
 Distinguish between law and other social
rules and conventions
 Explain the difference between public and
private law
 Distinguish between civil law and criminal
law

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Universal features of legal language

 extreme precision

 obscurity, ambiguity

 archaism (structures and vocabulary)

Universal features of legal language

 formalism, ritualism, ceremonialism

 wordiness, redundancy
 lengthy and complex sentences
(embeddings)
 impersonal constructions (passive)
 terms of art, technical terminology
CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

 common words with specialist meaning

 old or middle English words
 Latin words and phrases
 words of French origin
 terms of art
CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGAL ENGLISH

 argot
 formal words
 words and expressions with flexible
meaning
 extreme precision
 many words where one will do
What is Law?

 Categories of Law
 Sources of Law
 Brief Comparison of England and the U.S.

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 English Common Law
U.S.
Constitution
State #1 State #2
Constitution Constitution

Federal Congress Executiv

Courts e Branch

Agencies
State Stat Stat State Stat Stat
Courts e e Courts e e
Leg Exec Leg Exec
Agencies
Agencies

Individual or Business 118-2 17

Types of Law- Type
 Criminal
 Civil
 Administrative (Quasi Civil)

118-2 18
 Why do we need law?
 to provide a governmental structure and
legislative procedures: constitutional law
 to provide public services and to raise
taxes to pay for them: administrative and
revenue law;
 to regulate and promote the economy:
administrative, civil and criminal law are all
involved

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 Why do we need law?

 to promote public order and preserve national

security: criminal law
 to give individual members personal rights and
duties in relation to others and to enable
personal enforcement of these rights: the civil
law
 to give legal validity to approved relationships
and transactions between members of the
society

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 The purpose & function of law?

 To enforce morality
 Maintains social control
 Protects public order
 To resolve disputes
 Protects certainty of systems
 Brings out justice in society
 To protect citizens´ from the government
(e.g. Bill of Rights)
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 The purpose & function of law? (cont.)

 To protect minorities from majorities

 Setting standards of conduct behavior
 To structure the government
(e.g. Constitution)
 To resolve disputes peacefully, civilized

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Defining the Law
 Some law is “black letter”
 Most law is very ambiguous and hard to
pin down
◦ Court interpretations of statutes –
“precedent”
◦ Ethical interpretations
◦ Tradition and practice of police, courts and
agencies
◦ Case law or “common law”

118-2 23
Jurisprudence, or “What is Law?”
“Law is what the sovereign says it is.”
Decisions stand, regardless of morality.

“An unjust law is no law at all and need

not be obeyed.”
Laws must have a good moral basis.

“Enforcement of the law is more important

than the law itself.”
Enforcers determine if the law is applied
in a fair and consistent way.

118-2 24
What is Law?
 Law may be defined as a body of rules,
created by the state, binding within its
jurisdiction and enforced with the
authority of the state through the use of
sanctions
 A set of rules and procedures usually
intended to regulate some aspect of
society

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 What is Law?

 Law provides rules

 It tells us what we can and cannot do
 Therefore, it is important for a
businessperson to know the rules which
apply to them

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 What is Law? (cont.)

 Different countries have different forms of

law and social order
 In this module, we shall be looking at some
of the principles of English Law
 However, many of these principles can be
found in other legal systems
◦ even if the details are different

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 Categories of Law

Law is a very large field, and it is common to

divide it into categories
 common law and civil law
 private law and public law
 civil law and criminal law

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Common Law and Civil Law

 A legal system is the way the law is

structured and operated in a country
◦ England and Bosnia have different legal systems
 Common Law and Civil Law are terms
used to describe legal systems

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Common Law

 Common Law is used to describe legal

systems based on the English legal system
 These are usually countries which were
once part of the British Empire
◦ eg: America, Australia, New Zealand

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Civil Law
 Civil Law is used to describe legal systems
which are based on old Roman Law (from
the Roman Empire in what is now Italy)
 eg: France, Germany
 Paraguay is usually classified as a civil law
system and it is based on Roman Law

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Common Law v. Civil Law
Common Law Civil Law
 Case law and the  Consists of a legal code
courts are most of general principles
important source of law which is the source of
law

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Common Law v. Civil Law
Below: A world map showing countries today that have a civil law system (light blue), countries that
have a common law system (green), and countries that have both (orange).

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Applying the Law

• Begin with black letter law

• Evaluate the moral situation
• Apply the moral pressure against the strength of
the law
1) The less clear the black letter law, the more
likely moral standard determines outcome.

2) The stronger the moral conviction the more

likely moral standard determines outcome.

118-2 34
Private Law and Public Law

 Private Law and Public Law are concerned

with relationships

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 Private Law

 Private Law deals with the relationships

between ordinary people in everyday
transactions
 That includes you and me, as well as
businesses and companies
 Private Law includes the law of contract
and the law of tort

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Private Law
Individual Individual

Law regulates relationship

between them

Examples
Contract and tort issues, employment
and company law, land, and equity and
trusts matters.

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Public Law
 Public Law deals with the relationships
between government organisations and
ordinary citizens
◦ also between different government
organisations
 Public Law includes constitutional law,
administrative law, and criminal law

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Public Law
State State Bodies

Individual
Law regulates relationship
between them

Examples
Human rights matters, immigration and
citizenship, criminal law, planning law,
licensing law.

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 Civil Law and Criminal Law

 In this category, “civil law” has a different

meaning from the Common Law and Civil
Law category

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 Civil Law

 In this category, civil law deals with the

relationships between individual citizens
 Its purpose is to settle arguments between
individuals
 It helps people to find remedies
◦ it doesn’t really punish people
 Civil Law includes all Private Law and some
Public Law

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 Criminal Law v. Civil Law

 A very important difference between

criminal law and civil law relates to court
cases
 In a criminal case, the prosecutors (ie the
State) must prove their case beyond
reasonable doubt
 In a civil case, the parties only have to
prove their case on the balance of
probabilities
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 Sources of Law English Law

 Common Law system

 Sources of Law
◦ European Union
◦ Domestic Legislation
◦ Case Law
 Case Law important in developing and
explaining the law.

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English Legal System
 1. Introductory remarks
 English Legal System covers the law making
machinery and the rules governing it,
 It covers people involved in decision-making
and operation of the system
 English Legal System refers to England and
Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have
separate legal systems.
English Legal system
 Cownie and Bradney define legal system as a
system constructed around the resolution of
legal disputes:
 'Legal systems are there to determine what
will happen when people have disputes. Legal
rules are also there so people can order
their lives in such a way as to avoid such
disputes' English Legal System in Context