. English law has spread to many other countries, including former English colonies such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zeealand.
English law has an evolving history dating from the local customs of the Anglo-Saxons, traces of which survived until 1925. After the Norman Conquest there grew up, side by side with the Saxon shire courts, the feudal courts of the barons and the ecclesiastical (church) courts. From the king’s council developed the royal courts, presided over by professional judges, which gradually absorbed the jurisdictions (legal powers) of the baronial and ecclesiastical courts. By 1250 the royal judges had amalgamated the various local customs into the system of common law – that is, law common to the whole country. A second system known as equity developed in the Court of Chancery, in which the Lord Chancellor considered petitions.
In the 17th and 18th centuries common law absorbed the Law Merchant, the international code of mercantile customs. During the 19th century virtually the whole of English law was reformed by legislation; for example, the number of capital offenses was greatly reduced.
A unique feature of English law is the doctrine of judicial precedents, whereby the reported decisions of the courts form a binding source of law for future decisions. A judge is bound by decisions of courts of superior jurisdiction but not necessarily by those of inferior courts.
Judicial precedent explained:
The doctrine of precedent is based on the principle that like cases should be treated alike.This means that once a decision has been reached in a particular case,it stands as good law and should be relied upon in other cases as an accurate statement of law.This is the essence of the doctrine.
For example a case which is decided n the Court of Appeal could be relevant in three different directions:(House of Lords and High t Court respectively)and horizontally (other Court of Appeal Cases)
Also the doctrine is based on a series of e assumptions:
-cases that have similar facts should be decided the same
-decisions made in higher courts carry greater wheight than those in lower
-judgments often contain a great deal of legal discussion that may be hemispherical to the case
Sources of law:
primary sources-legislation,case law
secondary sources ,books,academic articles ,official publications
Soft law -is sometimes referred to a quasi -legislation or law which is not law .Soft law is typically administrative in nature (procedural rules,recommendations ,rules of practice ,voluntary codes ,guides of interpretation)
Important Recent Reforms in BLS:
The Woolf Report
Human Rights Act1998
Constitutional Reform Act 2005-Supreme Court
The Equality Act 2010
Bibliography: Essentials of the English Legal System by John Wheeler
