1 THE BASICS OF LEGAL SYSTEM THE UNITED KINGDOM
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland consists of England,
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It was established in 1801 with the union of Great
Britain and Ireland, but only achieved its present form in 1922, with the partition of
Ireland and the establishment of the independent Irish Free State (later the Republic of
Ireland).
England and Wales have a combined judicial system, while Scotland and Northern
Ireland have their own judicial systems.
The Queen is the Head of State, although in practice the supreme authority of the
Crown is exercised by the government of the day. The UK legislature is a bicameral
parliament, consisting of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of
Commons consists of 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) elected by simple majority vote
in a general election every five years. The House of Lords has more than 700 members,
who fall into three categories: life peers (the largest group), hereditary peers, and bishops;
most peers are appointed on the recommendation of the Prime Minister or the House of
Lords Appointments Commission.
Sources of UK Law
The three principal sources of UK law are legislation, common law and European
Union law. There is no single series of documents that contains the whole of the law of
the UK.
Legislation
The principal legislature is the UK Parliament, which is based in London. This is
the only body that has the power to pass laws that apply in all four countries. The UK
Parliament consists of the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
The House of Commons consists of 650 Members of Parliament (MPs). Each MP
represents a defined geographic constituency, whose electors vote using a "first-past-thepost" system. Each elector has one vote, and the candidate with the highest number of
votes is elected as MP for that constituency. MPs are only allowed to sit for the lifetime of
the Parliament, that is, the length of time between General Elections when a new set of
MPs is elected. However, MPs can be reelected a limitless number of times.
The House of Lords consists of nearly 800 peers, of whom 600 are formally
appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The~ther
members of the House of Lords are people who have inherited aristocratic titles such as
"Lord" or "Lady", and senior bishops of the Church of England.
Notwithstanding its common law heritage, the modern UK legal system relies
heavily on statutory law. We should bear in mind that there is no official compilation of
all UK statutes currently in force comparable to the United States Code. Nevertheless,
consolidated legislation, which incorporates all subsequent revisions and amendments
made to the original legislation, is readily accessible from both official and unofficial
sources.
Acts of Parliament (Primary Legislation)
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are the supreme law
in the United Kingdom. Most Acts of Parliament fall into one of two broad categories:
Public General Acts of universal application and Private Acts affecting~nly specified
localities, entities or individuals. A third category of Hybrid Acts combines elements
of both public and private acts. The vast majority of UK legal research involves Public
General Acts.
The Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, and the Northern Ireland Assembly
each enact primary legislation for their respective jurisdictions, but only with respect to
those matters that have been devolved to them by the national Parliament in London.
Secondary (Delegated) Legislation
Secondary legislation refers to specialized rules and regulations issued by ministers or
governmental entities acting under authority delegated to them by an Act of Parliament.
Such rules, also known as delegated legislation, have the force oflaw and are analogous to
regulations issued by administrative agencies in the United States.
The most common type of secondary legislation is known as a Statutory Instrument
(SI). Other types of secondary legislation include Orders in Council and Orders of
Council.
The Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly, and the Northern Ireland Assembly
also enact primary legislation that authorizes the creation of secondary legislation
applicable within their respective jurisdictions.
Common Law
Common law, also known as case law or precedent, is law developed by judges,
courts, and similar tribunals, stated in decisions that nominally decide individual cases
but that, in addition, have precedential effect on future cases. Common law is a third
branch of law, in contrast to and on equal footing with statutes which are adopted
through the legislative process, and regulations which are promulgated by the executive
branch. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, a common law court looks
to past precedential decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in
the past, the court is usually bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision,
which is a principle known as stare decisis. If, however, the court finds that the current
dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases, which is called a "matter of first
impression", judges have the authority and duty to resolve the issue, in which one party or
the other has to win, and on disagreements of law, judges make that decision. Resolution
of the issue in one case becomes precedent that binds future courts. Stare decisis, the
principle that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that
similar facts will yield similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems.
The concept "common law system" refers to a legal system that gives great precedential weight to common law. Common law systems originated during the Middle Ages in England, and from there propagated to the colonies of the British Empire. Today, one third of the world's population live in common law jurisdictions or in systems mixed with civil law. The legal system of England and Wales is a common law one, so the decisions of the senior appellate courts (see below) become part of the law.
