The sources of common law (british)

Sources are : Acts of the Uk Parliament also known as statutes such as the bill of rights of 1689 (an Act of the Parliament of England that set out certain basic civil rights and clarified who would be next to inherit the Crown), judicial decisions, historical documents, jurisprudence, conventions and treaties. There is also jurisprudence (everything that has to do with Common law ) , historical documents, treaties like the bill of rights, the magna carta, tha abeas corpus etc. We can also count parliamentary acts called Statute law as opposed to common law (judicial decisions, precedent). Finally, there are also conventions such as : the prime minister is the leader of the majority (party), the royal assent, the pm appoints his own ministers… its not written anywhere.

Some useful law expressions :

Contraire à la loi= against the law

De par la loi = By law

Enfreindre la loi = to break the law

Aller devant la justice = To go to law

Se faire justice = To take the law into one’s own hands

Etre au dessus des lois = to be above the law

Fixer les règles du jeu = To lay down the law

Etre son propre juge = To be a law unto oneself

Les règles du jeu = the laws of the game

Stare decisis : to stand by things decided. the point is stability, security of the system, equality of treatment, neutrality (same case, same decision), certainty. You are aware of the past decisions (the defendant knew) and the judge also knows what to do ; no surprise. Its also more efficient because as the case was treated before, there is no need to spend too much time on the new case. its pragmatic. And if the justice is quicker, it is cheaper. There is aslo the idea of fairness in treatment (equity, equality). Continuity, uniformity.

And if you resort to past decisions, you are not so much influenced by the fashion of the day/political decisions of the day, not the victim of the whims of the day so you have more neutrality.

Common law :

uncodified

judges shape the law

adversarial → competition of lawyers/ fight + the judge is a referee =an umpire. the lawyers have the power, they lead the trial. They are too important (critic).before the trial, the judge hasn’ studied the case (he is in the same position as the jury). so there is a lot more drama (last-minute witness or evidence, whoch is not possible in france).

better lawyer means less chances of conviction (risk)

about the “search for justice “. some people say that its better for the defendant in a common law system.

in the common law there is the possibility of a plea deal/plea bargain . admitting to guilt=getting arrengements made for you, the point is to save time and money, it can reduce the punishment. BUT in the US its possible in civil and criminal system, and in the UK its only in the civil law/case.

Civil law :

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