What is Common Law?
description
Transcript of What is Common Law?
![Page 1: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
What is Common Law?
![Page 2: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Blackstone ‘The Common Law’
"... to be found in the records of our several courts of justice in books of reports and judicial decisions, and in treatises of learned sages of the profession, prescribed and handed down to us from the times of ancient antiquity. They are the laws which gave rise and origin to that collection of maxims and customs which is now known by the name of common law."
Sir William Blackstone 1723-1780
Commentaries on the Laws of England Four Volumes published between 1765-1769
![Page 3: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
"IT IS BETTER THAT TEN GUILTY PERSONS ESCAPE THAN ONE INNOCENT SUFFER.“
SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE
CC-BY kangotravelerhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/14279744@N03/2226542443/
![Page 4: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
The development of Common Law
![Page 5: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
William the Conqueror 1066-1087
![Page 6: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
![Page 7: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
Early illustration of trial by combat
Trial by ordeal
• Until banned in C13th trial could be by ordeal
• Male serfs underwent trial by water
• Freemen and all women, trial by hot iron.
• If a person was innocent God would perform a miracle
• There was also trial by combat - "wager of battle.“
![Page 8: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
The Curia Regis “King’s Court”• Used by William I to govern the country and as
court for deciding disputes
![Page 9: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Juries and the shires
![Page 10: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
![Page 11: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
• Takes throne after generation of civil war
• Keen to regain control• Institutionalised common law • Court system ‘common’ to the
country• King’s Bench in Westminster• Judges go ‘on circuit’• Eliminated arbitrary remedies• Jury system of citizens sworn on
oath to investigate criminal and civil matters
Henry II 1154-1189
![Page 12: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Spread ofCommon
Law
King’s courts
12thCenturyEngland & Wales
![Page 13: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Case report from reign of Edward III
Earliest Law Reports
Date from C13thThe Year Books
The oldest available law reports cover the period c.1272 (the early years of Edward I's reign) to 1535.
They are written in legal French or Latin and were produced anonymously
CC-BY Yale Law Libraryhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/yalelawlibrary/8388295500/in/set-72157632540779086
![Page 14: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Feudal times
![Page 15: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
• The Assize system lasted until 1971
• Current Circuit system - High Court judges sit in London and travel around the country
The Court of King's Bench at work. C15th illuminated manuscript
![Page 16: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Henry II and the jury
• 1166 Royal Edict• Grand Jury – jury of
presentment• Followed by ordeal• Petty jury - Trial jury
used to decide guilt after abolition of trial by ordeal in 1215
![Page 17: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Reflections
CC-BY dSeneste.dkhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dseneste/5912382808/
![Page 18: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Peaceful Resolution of DisputesThe ending of blood feuds in England coincided with the
establishment of the King’s Courts in the 12th Century
“The justification of a legal system and procedures must be one of lesser evils - that legal resolution of disputes is preferable to blood feuds, rampant crime and violence.” [Bayles 1986]
Romeo and Juliet
![Page 19: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
“The first impulse of a rudimentary soul is to do justice by his own hand. Only at the cost of mighty historical efforts has it been possible to supplant in the human soul the idea of self-obtained justice by the idea of justice entrusted to authorities.”
Eduardo Couture (1950)
The courts are public sites for justice
![Page 20: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Countries marked in red at those with a Common Law legal system
![Page 21: What is Common Law?](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062302/56816979550346895de17542/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Features of Common Law SystemsOrigins in English Common Law
• Not always a written constitution or codified laws• Judicial decisions binding – decisions of highest court only
overturned by same court or through legislation• Everything permitted that not expressly prohibited by law