Appunti inglese giuridico

UK law

Legislative sources

Domestic law

• Acts of Parliament
• Secondary Legislation

European law and ECJ case law

Judicial sources

Common law

• Case law

Acts of Parliament

• Public General Act
• Private Act
• Hybrid Act

Creation of statute law in the United Kingdom

Proposal

• Green Papers: tentative proposals issued by the Government
• White Paper: definite proposal issued by the Government

Drafting

• Draftsmen set out the legislation proposal into a Bill

Enactment

• First Reading: the title of the Bill is introduced into the House of Commons
• Second Reading: first general debate on main principles and purpose of the Bill
• Committee stage: the Bill is debated by a small group of MPs and may be amended
• Report stage: MPs not in the committee may consider amendments
• Third Reading: final debate on the amended Bill

Passage through the Lords

The same passages are done all over again in the House of Peers

Royal Assent

The reigning monarch gives his/her approval to the Bill

Act of Parliament

The Bill is now law of the land

Case law

Judicial precedent

• Ratio decidendi: legal reasoning of a case
• Obiter dicta: anything not strictly relevant to the decision

Avoiding precedents

• Distinguish: the material facts are sufficiently different from previous precedents
• Reversing: a higher court overturns the decision of a lower court during the same case
• Overruling: a higher court reverses the decision of a lower court in a different case, creating a new decision on the same facts in later cases

European Court of Justice

European Court of Human Rights

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

(Binding lower courts but not itself)

Court of Appeal

(Binding lower courts and itself)

High Court

(Different disputes + appeals, new cases)

County Court

(Small claims)

Crown Court

(Criminal cases and appeals)

Magistrates Courts

Procedure

Adversarial system (Common law)

• Two sides as opponents
• Trial lawyers are responsible for adducing evidence and bringing legal argument
• Judge remains a neutral umpire

Inquisitorial system (Civil law)

• The state has the major investigator role

Lower courts (Magistrates Courts, County Courts)

Decide the matter of fact and law in a case for the first instance

Higher Courts (Crown Courts, High Courts, Courts of Appeal, Supreme Court)

Review of trial level decision on matter of legal principle and public interests

Civil law

Claimant against defendant

Remedies

• Damages: money compensation
• Injunction: a court order directing an action or prohibiting an action