English law - wikipedia English law For other uses, see English law ( disambiguation ). The Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in London is the seat of the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal. 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. Contents 1 Principal elements of English law 2 Statute law 2.1 Statutory framework 2.2 Types of statute law 2.3 Citation style 3 Common law 3.1 Description 3.2 Early development 3.3 Precedent 3.4 Overseas influences 4 Application to Wales 5 Subjects and links 5.1 Administrative law 5.2 Company and insolvency law 5.3 Contract 5.4 Criminal law 5.5 Equity 5.6 Evidence 5.7 Family law 5.8 Labour law 5.9 Property 5.10 Public law 5.11 Tort 5.12 Trusts 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links Principal elements of English law England 's most authoritative law is statutory legislation, which comprises Acts of Parliament, Regulations and Bye - Laws. In the absence of any statutory law, the common law with its principle of stare decisis forms the residual source of law, based on judicial decisions, custom, and usage. Its essence is that it is made by sitting judges applying both statutory law and the body of common law principles which have been established over the years from the reasoning of decisions in previous legal cases. A decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the highest civil appeal court of the United Kingdom, is binding on every other court. Equity is a further source of judge - made law. International treaties such as the European Union 's Treaty of Rome or the Hague - Visby Rules have effect in English law only when adopted and ratified by Act of Parliament. Adopted treaties may be subsequently denounced by executive action. Not being a civil law system, English law has no comprehensive codification. However, most of its criminal law has been codified from its common law origins, in the interests both of certainty and of ease of prosecution. For the time being, murder remains a common law crime rather than a statutory offence. Common law can be amended or repealed by Parliament ; for example section 4 of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992 effectively overrules Grant v Norway. Following Montesquieu 's theory of the `` separation of powers '', only Parliament has the power to legislate ; but in the event of a statute being ambiguous, only the courts have the power to decide its true meaning, using the principles of statutory interpretation. The courts have no authority to legislate, so the `` legal fiction '' is that they `` declare '' ( rather than `` create '' ) the common law. The House of Lords took this `` declaratory power '' a stage further in DPP v Shaw, where, in creating the new crime of `` conspiracy to corrupt public morals '', Viscount Simonds claimed the court had a `` residual power to protect the moral welfare of the state ''. Although Scotland and Northern Ireland form part of the United Kingdom, they have separate legal systems, although they share Westminster as a primary legislature, and Supreme Court decisions of any UK country is binding on the others, as in Donoghue v Stevenson. Even though Scotland became part of the UK over 300 years ago, Scots law has remained remarkably distinct from English law. Statute law Statutory framework The first schedule of the Interpretation Act 1978, defines the following terms : `` British Islands '', `` England '', and `` United Kingdom ''. The use of the term `` British Isles '' is virtually obsolete in statutes and, when it does appear, it is taken to be synonymous with `` British Islands ''. For interpretation purposes, England includes a number of specified elements : Wales and Berwick Act 1746, section 3 ( entire Act now repealed ) formally incorporated Wales and Berwick - upon - Tweed into England. But section 4 Welsh Language Act 1967 provided that references to England in future Acts of Parliament should no longer include Wales ( see now Interpretation Act 1978, Schedule 3, part 1 ). But Dicey & Morris say ( at p28 ) `` It seems desirable to adhere to Dicey 's ( the original ) definition for reasons of convenience and especially of brevity. It would be cumbersome to have to add `` or Wales '' after `` England '' and `` or Welsh '' after `` English '' every time those words are used. '' the `` adjacent islands '' of the Isle of Wight and Anglesey are a part of England and Wales by custom, while Harman v Bolt ( 1931 ) 47 TLR 219 expressly confirms that Lundy is a part of England. the `` adjacent territorial waters '' by virtue of the Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act 1878 and the Continental Shelf Act 1964 as amended by the Oil and Gas Enterprise Act 1982. `` Great Britain '' means England, Wales, Scotland, their adjacent territorial waters and the islands of Orkney and Shetland, the Hebrides and, by virtue of the Island of Rockall Act 1972, Rockall. `` United Kingdom '' means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and their adjacent territorial waters, but not the Isle of Man, nor the Channel Islands, whose independent status was discussed in Rover International Ltd. v Canon Film Sales Ltd. ( 1987 ) 1 WLR 1597 and Chloride Industrial Batteries Ltd. v F. & W. Freight Ltd. ( 1989 ) 1 WLR 823. `` British Islands '' -- but not `` British Isles '' -- means the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Types of statute law Acts of the Old Irish Parliament Acts of the Scottish Parliament Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament Measures of the Northern Ireland Assembly Measures of the National Assembly for Wales Acts of the National Assembly for Wales Ministerial Order Northern Ireland Statutory Rules UK Statutory Instruments Citation style Main article : Short title Statutes are cited in this fashion : `` Short Title Year '', e.g. Theft Act 1968. By contrast, American convention inserts `` of '', as in `` Civil Rights Act of 1964 ''. This became the usual way to refer to Acts in the second half of the 19th century, starting in the 1840s ; previously Acts were referred to by their long title together with the regnal year of the parliamentary session in which they received Royal Assent, and the chapter number. For example, the Pleading in English Act 1362 was referred to as 36 Edw. III c. 15, meaning `` 36th year of the reign of Edward III, chapter 15 '', though in the past this was all spelt out, together with the long title. Common law Description Common law is a term with historical origins in the legal system of England. It denotes, in the first place, the judge - made law that developed from the early Middle Ages as described in a work published at the end of the 19th century, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, in which Pollock and Maitland expanded the work of Coke ( 17th century ) and Blackstone ( 18th century ). Specifically, the law developed in England 's Court of Common Pleas and other common law courts, which became also the law of the colonies settled initially under the crown of England or, later, of the United Kingdom, in North America and elsewhere ; and this law as further developed after those courts in England were reorganised by the Supreme Court of Judicature Acts passed in the 1870s, and developed independently, in the legal systems of the United States and other jurisdictions, after their independence from the United Kingdom, before and after the 1870s. The term is used, in the second place, to denote the law developed by those courts, in the same periods ( pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial ), as distinct from within the jurisdiction, or former jurisdiction, of other courts in England : the Court of Chancery, the ecclesiastical courts, and the Admiralty court. In the Oxford English Dictionary ( 1933 ) `` common law '' is described as `` The unwritten law of England, administered by the King 's courts, which purports to be derived from ancient usage, and is embodied in the older commentaries and the reports of abridged cases '', as opposed, in that sense, to statute law, and as distinguished from the equity administered by the Chancery and similar courts, and from other systems such as ecclesiasical law, and admiralty law. For usage in the United States the description is `` the body of legal doctrine which is the foundation of the law administered in all states settled from England, and those formed by later settlement or division from them ''. Early development Since 1189, English law has been described as a common law rather than a civil law system ; in other words, no comprehensive codification of the law has taken place and judicial precedents are binding as opposed to persuasive. This may be a legacy of the Norman conquest of England, when a number of legal concepts and institutions from Norman law were introduced to England. In the early centuries of English common law, the justices and judges were responsible for adapting the system of writs to meet everyday needs, applying a mixture of precedent and common sense to build up a body of internally consistent law. An example is the Law Merchant derived from the `` Pie - Powder '' Courts, named from a corruption of the French pieds - poudrés ( `` dusty feet '' ) implying ad hoc marketplace courts. As the Parliament of England became ever more established and influential, legislation gradually overtook judicial law - making such that today, judges are only able to innovate in certain very narrowly defined areas. In 1276, the concept of `` time immemorial '' often applied in common law was defined as being any time before 6 July 1189 ( i.e. before Richard I 's accession to the English throne ). Precedent One of the major challenges in the early centuries was to produce a system that was certain in its operation and predictable in its outcomes. Too many judges were either partial or incompetent, acquiring their positions only by virtue of their rank in society. Thus, a standardised procedure slowly emerged, based on a system termed stare decisis which roughly means `` let the decision stand ''. The doctrine of precedent which requires similar cases to be adjudicated in a like manner, falls under the principle of stare decisis. Thus, the ratio decidendi ( reason for decision ) of each case will bind future cases on the same generic set of facts both horizontally and vertically in the court structure. The highest appellate court in the UK is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and its decisions are binding on every other court in the hierarchy which are obliged to apply its rulings as the law of the land. The Court of Appeal binds the lower courts, and so on. Overseas influences The influences are two - way. England exported English Common law and English Statute law to most parts of the British Empire, and many aspects of that system have survived after Independence or otherwise cessation of British rule. `` English law '' prior to the American Revolutionary Wars ( American War of Independence ) is still an influence on United States law, and provides the basis for many American legal traditions and policies. Many jurisdictions that have maintained the use of English Common law continue to incorporate modern developments of the Common law in England, and decisions from England are in many jurisdictions usually considered persuasive. The common law as taken or received from England has developed within each jurisdiction, and in that context, `` common law '' has been described as a body of judge - made law enforced and developed by the courts which includes equity and admiralty law, but has always been `` unintelligible without reference to statute ''. After the colonial period, the common law was developed within each jurisdiction under its final court of appeal : for a time in jurisdictions remaining under the British crown, it was the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, while from the founding of the United States each state has its own supreme court with final appellate jurisdiction, and in respect of federal law the US Supreme Court has the final appellate jurisdiction. For a number of jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Nations, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain remains the ultimate court of appeal in place of a local Supreme Court. The decisions of the committee made before the change of jurisdiction remain binding legal precedent. Britain is a dualist in its relationship with international law, i.e., international obligations have to be formally incorporated into English law before the courts are obliged to apply supranational laws. For example, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was signed in 1950 and Britain allowed individuals to directly petition the European Commission on Human Rights from 1966. Now s6 ( 1 ) Human Rights Act 1998 ( HRA ) makes it unlawful ``... for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a convention right '', where a `` public authority '' is any person or body which exercises a public function, expressly including the courts but expressly excluding Parliament. Although the European Convention has begun to be applied to the acts of non-state agents, the HRA does not make the Convention specifically applicable between private parties. Courts have taken the Convention into account in interpreting the common law. They also must take the Convention into account in interpreting Acts of Parliament, but must ultimately follow the terms of the Act even if inconsistent with the Convention ( s3 HRA ). Similarly, because Britain remains a strong international trading nation, international consistency of decision making is of vital importance, so Admiralty Law is strongly influenced by Public International Law and the modern commercial treaties and conventions regulating shipping. Application to Wales Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales is not a separate jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. The customary laws of Wales within the Kingdom of England were abolished by King Henry VIII 's Laws in Wales Acts which brought Wales into legal conformity with England. While Wales now has a devolved Assembly, any legislation which that Assembly passes is enacted in particular circumscribed policy areas defined by the Government of Wales Act 2006, other legislation of the British Parliament, or by Orders in Council given under the authority of the 2006 Act. Between 1746 and 1967, any reference to England in legislation was deemed to include Wales. This ceased with the enactment of the Welsh Language Act 1967 and the jurisdiction is now commonly referred to as `` England and Wales ''. Although devolution has accorded some degree of political autonomy to Wales in the National Assembly for Wales, it did not have the ability to pass primary legislation until the Government of Wales Act 2006 came into force after the 2007 Welsh general election. That said, the Welsh legal system remains English common law, in that the legal system administered through both civil and criminal courts remains unified throughout England and Wales. This is different from the situation of Northern Ireland, for example, which did not cease to be a distinct jurisdiction when its legislature was suspended ( see Northern Ireland ( Temporary Provisions ) Act 1972 ). A major difference is also the use of the Welsh language, as laws concerning it apply in Wales and not in the rest of the United Kingdom. The Welsh Language Act 1993 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which put the Welsh language on an equal footing with the English language in Wales with regard to the public sector. Welsh may also be spoken in Welsh courts. Subjects and links Administrative law Main article : English administrative law Company and insolvency law Main articles : United Kingdom company law and United Kingdom insolvency law Contract Main article : English contract law Criminal law Main article : English criminal law English criminal law derives its main principles from the common law. The main elements of a crime are the actus reus ( doing something which is criminally prohibited ) and a mens rea ( having the requisite criminal state of mind, usually intention or recklessness ). A prosecutor must show that a person has caused the offensive conduct, or that the culprit had some pre-existing duty to take steps to avoid a criminal consequence. The types of different crimes range from those well known ones like manslaughter, murder, theft and robbery to a plethora of regulatory and statutory offences. It is estimated that in the UK, there are 3,500 classes of criminal offence. Certain defences may exist to crimes, which include self - defence, intention, necessity, duress, and in the case of a murder charge, under the Homicide Act 1957, diminished responsibility, provocation and, in very rare cases, survival of a suicide pact. It has often been suggested that England and Wales should codify its criminal law in an English Criminal Code, but there has been no overwhelming support for this in the past. Equity Main article : Equity ( law ) Evidence Hearsay Ladd v Marshall Family law Main article : Family law system in England and Wales Alimony Residence in English family law Bastard Labour law Main article : British labour law Property Main article : English property law Chose Public law Main article : Public law Tort Main article : English tort law Trusts Main article : Trust law in England and Wales See also Law of England and Wales portal Books of authority Effect of European Communities Act 1972 Law Commission ( England and Wales ) Law of Church of England Military Law in UK Open justice Order in Council Scots law Welsh law Contemporary Welsh law ( New powers for the Welsh Assembly ) Chief Justice Coke 's rulings in Case of Proclamations Case of Prohibitions Notes Jump up ^ For Civil procedure, see Civil procedure in England and Wales Jump up ^ For Criminal procedure, see Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 Jump up ^ Collins English Dictionary. ( 1 ) Jump up ^ Now renamed as `` Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union Jump up ^ E.g. Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971 : s. 1 ( 1 ) In this Act, `` the Rules '' means the International Convention for the unification of certain rules of law relating to bills of lading (... ). s. 1 ( 2 ) The provisions of the Rules, as set out in the Schedule to this Act, shall have the force of law. Jump up ^ e.g. Arrest Convention 1952 Art. 17 ( 2 ) Jump up ^ Law Commission Report on the Codification of the Criminal Law ( 3 ) Jump up ^ Newspaper report on proposed changes to homicide law ( 4 ) Jump up ^ Grant v Norway ( 1851 ) 10 CB 665, 138 ER 263, 20 LJCP 93, 15 Jur 296 ( 5 ) Jump up ^ Commentary on Grant v Norway ( 6 ) Jump up ^ Shaw v DPP1962 AC 220 HL ( n ) Jump up ^ Shaw v DPP case summary ( 7 ) Jump up ^ Viscount Simonds : `` There remains in the Courts of Law a residual power to enforce the supreme and fundamental purpose of the law, to conserve not only the safety and order but also the moral welfare of the State, and that it is their duty to guard it against attacks which may be the more insidious because they are novel and unprepared for. '' Jump up ^ Donoghue v Stevenson ( 1932 ) UKHL ( 1932 ) UKHL Jump up ^ Before 1963 Acts were cited with a comma between the Short Title and the year, e.g. `` Acts of Parliament Numbering and Citation Act, 1962 ''. ( 8 ) The comma has since been dropped, e.g. `` British Museum Act 1963 '' ( 9 ) Jump up ^ See also : acts listed in First Schedule to Short Titles Act, 1896 ) ( 10 ) where the title is the `` short title '', and ends in `` Act '', as in `` Interpretation Act 1978 ''. Jump up ^ The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, 2 vols., on line, with notes, by Professor S.F.C. Milsom, originally published in Cambridge University Press 's 1968 reissue. ( 11 ) Jump up ^ OED, 1933 edition : citations supporting that description, before Blackstone, are from the 14th and 16th centuries. Jump up ^ OED, 1933 edition : citations supporting that description are two from 19th century sources. Jump up ^ Liam Boyle, An Australian August Corpus : Why There is Only One Common Law in Australia, Bond Law Review, Volume 27, 2015. ( 12 ) References Beale, Joseph H. ( 1935 ) A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws. ISBN 1 - 58477 - 425 - 8 Dicey & Morris ( 1993 ). The Conflict of Laws 12th edition. London : Sweet & Maxwell Ltd. ISBN 0 - 420 - 48280 - 6 Slapper, Gary ; David Kelly ( 2008 - 07 - 15 ). The English Legal System. London : Routledge - Cavendish. ISBN 978 - 0 - 415 - 45954 - 9. Barnett, Hilaire ( 2008 - 07 - 21 ). Constitutional & Administrative Law. London : Routledge - Cavendish. ISBN 978 - 0 - 415 - 45829 - 0. Further reading Milsom, S.F.C., A Natural History of the Common Law. Columbia University Press ( 2003 ) ISBN 0231129947 Milsom, S.F.C., Historical Foundations of the Common Law ( 2nd ed. ). Lexis Law Publishing ( Va ), ( 1981 ) ISBN 0406625034 External links The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I, 2 vols., on line, with notes, by S.F.C. Milsom, originally published in Cambridge University Press 's 1968 reissue. English law Core subjects UK Constitution Administrative law Criminal law Contract law Tort law Property law Trust law EU law Case law Further subjects Company law Competition law Labour law Commercial law Civil procedure Family law Courts of England and Wales Related systems UK - wide Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Australia British Virgin Islands Canada Hong Kong India New Zealand Singapore United States Anglo - Saxon law Common law Equity Portal United Kingdom legislation Pre-Parliamentary legislation List of English statutes Charter of Liberties Magna Carta Acts of Parliament by states preceding the Kingdom of Great Britain Parliament of England to 1483 1485 -- 1601 1603 -- 1641 Interregnum ( 1642 -- 1660 ) 1660 -- 1699 1700 -- 1706 Parliament of Scotland to 1706 Acts of Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain 1707 -- 1719 1720 -- 1739 1740 -- 1759 1760 -- 1779 1780 -- 1800 Acts of the Parliament of Ireland to 1700 1701 -- 1800 Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1801 -- 1819 1820 -- 1839 1840 -- 1859 1860 -- 1879 1880 -- 1899 1900 -- 1919 1920 -- 1939 1940 -- 1959 1960 -- 1979 1980 -- 1999 2000 to date Halsbury 's Statutes Legislation.gov.uk Short titles relating to the European Union 1972 to date Church of England measures List Church of England Assembly ( Powers ) Act 1919 Legislation of devolved institutions Acts of the Scottish Parliament List Acts and Measures of the National Assembly for Wales List Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland Orders - in - Council / Orders in Council Orders - in - Council for Northern Ireland ( 1972 - 2009 ) Orders in Council for Northern Ireland Secondary legislation United Kingdom Statutory Instruments various Scottish Statutory Instruments Acts of Sederunt Acts of Adjournal all others Law of the United Kingdom Common fields Constitutional law English law Northern Ireland law Scots law Welsh law Civil liberties Company and insolvency law Competition law Labour law Commercial law European Union law Parallel fields Scots delict and English tort law Scots and English contract law Scots and English land law Trusts Scots and English administrative law Scots and English criminal law Scots and English family law Scots and English civil procedure Related systems British Virgin Islands Australia Canada Hong Kong India Ireland New Zealand United States Anglo - Saxon law Common law Equity English case law See also Legal services in the United Kingdom United Kingdom law category Law in Europe Sovereign states Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Vatican City States with limited recognition Abkhazia Artsakh Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria Dependencies and other entities Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard Other entities European Union Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=English_law&oldid=821789812 '' Categories : English law Legal codes Law in the United Kingdom Common law legal systems England and Wales Legal history of England Public policy in England Public policy in Wales Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikiversity Bosanski Català Čeština Deutsch Español Français Հայերեն हिन्दी Bahasa Indonesia ಕನ್ನಡ Bahasa Melayu 日本 語 Português Русский Simple English Svenska தமிழ் Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 22 January 2018, at 17 : 13. 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Question: when was the emergence of the english court system
Answer: 1189