Legal System

English Legal System



English Legal System

Introduction

The English law was developed independently of the rest of Europe after its consolidation as a legal system during the reign of Henry II in the twelfth century. That was the moment that created the central court system and "writs of actions" (royal orders).

The main issue in the analysis of this development is that the English common law system managed, once established, rational responses (and for example, stopped using "judgment by ordeal" (trial subject to physical evidence and divine judgment) and replaced by the system of trial by jury and witnesses) that could meet all the needs of the rural pop-feudal society (Allan, 1993).

England adopted the common law before the continental Roman law was rationalized and studied enough to constitute a better alternative worthy of being imported. This centrality and unifying the wealthy Crown of England gave its legal system was unique in Europe and perhaps the best answer to the lack of early reception of Roman law in England at the beginning of the Middle Ages (Tompson, 2000).

However, it should be noted that Roman law exercised influence over England during the twelfth and thirteenth century. No matter how limited was England; it could not remain completely isolated from the intellectual currents that were taking place in continental Europe. At the end of the twelfth century, Vacarious, a Roman jurist scholar, went to England and his "Liber Pauperum" under his arm, he taught Roman law (whether in Oxford, Canterbury or York, still not known with certainty, but their presence in England is unquestionable (Haigh, 2009).

Discussion

Common Law Principles

The common law system is based mainly on the analysis of the judgments rendered by the same court or any of its higher courts (those that can appeal decisions made by the court) and interpretations that these statements are given in the laws, so the laws can be ambiguous in many respects, as it is expected that the courts clarify (or have already done this on previous laws, but similar). This is why in the United States even taught rules of the British colonial days.

On the other hand, there are judicial interpretations that create new legal concepts, which at first were the norm, but today are the exception, however remains the nomenclature and are known as statutory offense, for example, the offense created by the Act. Today, it is much more common for completely new laws or figures believe that standardize and establish the rules previously established by judicial decisions (Tompson, 2000).

A very important detail is that, in subsequent cases, the ratio decided of the judgments previously rendered requires a court (and all courts below it) to fail in the same way or similarly. Therefore the system study is based on detailed analysis of the judgments which induces the norm , study ending in the development of a "typical case", which is compared to the situation under study to see if similar or not (Nielsen & Christoffersen, ...