Law in common law countries.

Law in common law countries.

Legal systems can be classified into several categories depending on the type of law they’re based on :

Civil Law

In civil laws countries, the law is codified and the role of the judge is to find the law that applies to a particular case. They try to establish the truth

Common Law

In common-law countries, the role of the judge is to find a similar case to apply a similar treatment. (Same case, same decision) Stare Decisis

They try to find an agreement

Religious Law

Try to apply a moral value /ethical standard, upheld by God or laid out by jurist or sacred texts.

Customary Law

It’s grounded either in existing laws or rules prescribed by a chief.

Hybrid

ex: Jersey, Louisiana, Canada, : English Common-law and French civil law

This course will focus on Common-Law legal systems.

Chapter 1 : Becoming a lawyer in common law countries

Legal education

Legal education may starts at post-graduate level (after a first degree : licence) in the US for example. In other countries, you can start directly after your first year.

In the UK : and in some US/AU universities, you may start law at under-graduate level.

In the UK, students apply for several universities the year of the School-Level Certificate. The application is centralized nation-wide by a charitable organisation : UCAS.

Bristol university say they receive 2500 applications. 145 « home students » (including UK and EU students) and 50 international students.

They receive that many demands maybe because of the average salary for legal professionals : (£34,500 for a Solicitor, £50,000 for a Barrister). And they are ready to pay the fees that can go up to £9,250/year (excluding housing etc)

Back in 1999, university was free, but this created a debate because the working class was paying for the middle-class’s education through taxes.

And this led to a raise of the College fees by the Labour Party (parti politique représentant la classe ouvrière)

In order to manage the frustration of those who couldn’t enter the University due to the high number of applications, they created the LNAT (Law National Admission Test) and it’s used in 8 major UK universities → More transparency. It costs £50.

The first 3/4 years of studies are called ‘College’. In the UK and other common-law countries, students are encouraged to take extra-curricular activities like :

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