English Legal System: Sources of Law, Legislation, and Judicial Precedent

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the English Legal System, including types of law, constitutional fundamentals, the legislative process, delegated legislation, judicial review, statutory interpretation, and the doctrine of judicial precedent.

Statute Law

Law made in parliament and voted on by MPs that can alter the political and legal system.

Common Law

Judge-made law developed through the judiciary where decisions of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal bind lower courts.

Private Law

The branch of law governing legal relationships and disputes between private citizens or businesses.

Public Law

The branch of law that involves the state as at least one of the participating parties.

Uncodified Constitution

A flexible constitution not contained in a single document, meaning rights and institutional systems are not entrenched and are relatively weak.

Constitutional Conventions

Customs and unwritten constitutional practices without legal force, such as the Prime Minister exercising powers that historically belonged to the monarch.

Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (CRA 2005)

Statute that enhanced judicial independence by establishing the Supreme Court, removing senior judges from the legislative House of Lords, and creating the Judicial Appointments Commission.

Parliamentary Sovereignty

The fundamental constitutional principle that parliament holds absolute and unlimited law-making power, cannot bind successor parliaments, and cannot have the validity of its acts challenged by courts.

Rule of Law

AV Dicey's constitutional principle establishing that there is no sanction without a breach of law, the law is public and accessible to everyone, and all individuals including the government are equal before the law.

Parliamentary Privilege

A legal immunity allowing Members of Parliament to speak without restriction in House of Commons debates without being sued.

Public Bills

Bills introduced to parliament involving matters of public policy that affect the whole country and usually reflect government policy.

Private Bills

Bills promoted by specific organizations, such as local authorities or private companies, that alter the law only as it applies to specified individuals or organizations.

Private Members' Bills

Bills sponsored by individual MPs chosen through a ballot of $20$ at the beginning of a parliamentary session, of which approximately $4\%$ successfully become law.

Parliament Acts 1911 & 1949

Statutes that removed the House of Lords' veto power, allowing the House of Commons to pass a bill after delaying it for one year and reintroducing it in the following session.

Green Paper

An initial consultative government document outlining an idea for a bill, posted online for the public to read and offer feedback to help shape the proposed law.

White Paper

A formal policy document drafted into the format of a new law following a green paper, allowing further deliberation before introduction as a bill.

Committee Stage

The legislative stage where a bill is thoroughly read clause-by-clause and reviewed by a committee of members from both houses, who may suggest amendments and exclusions.

Ping Pong Stage

The phase during the legislative process where a bill passes back and forth between the House of Commons and House of Lords until both chambers agree on its policies and amendments.

Delegated Legislation

Law created by an external body or individual acting under the delegated authority of parliament rather than through the full primary legislative process.

Parent Act (Enabling Act)

An act of parliament that establishes the foundational legal framework and grants statutory authority for delegated legislation to be made.

Statutory Instruments (SIs)

The most common form of delegated legislation, comprising rules, regulations, and orders drafted by government ministers that carry national legal effect.

By-laws

Local laws enacted by local authorities or public corporations under powers such as the Local Government Act 1972, requiring approval by the relevant government minister.

Orders in Council

The most formal type of delegated legislation, enacted by the government through the Privy Council to address emergencies or matters where statutory instruments are unsuitable.

Henry VIII Clause

A statutory clause conferring broad powers on executive ministers to create new laws or amend primary legislation on an equal footing with parliament, bypassing ordinary parliamentary procedures.

Negative Resolution

A parliamentary control mechanism where a statutory instrument automatically becomes law within $40$ days without debate unless parliament actively votes to reject it.

Affirmative Resolution

A stringent procedure where a statutory instrument cannot become law until it is formally debated and approved by parliament.

Substantive Ultra Vires

A ground for judicial review where delegated legislation is declared void because the public body acted beyond the subject matter scope of the powers granted in the enabling act.

Procedural Ultra Vires

A ground for judicial review where delegated legislation is declared void because the body failed to follow mandatory procedural requirements specified in the enabling act.

Wednesbury Unreasonableness

The legal test established in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corp (1948) permitting courts to intervene if a public body acted contrary to law, considered irrelevant factors, failed to consider relevant factors, or reached a decision no reasonable person could have taken.

Statutory Interpretation

The judicial process of discerning the meaning of statutory wording in an act of parliament and applying that meaning to the specific facts of a case.

Literal Rule

An initial and strict approach to statutory interpretation where judges read statutory words according to their plain, literal meaning without flexibility, even if the outcome is absurd.

Golden Rule

A modification of the literal rule permitting judges to adopt a narrow or broad interpretation of words to avoid an absurd or repugnant outcome.

Mischief Rule

An interpretative approach directing judges to look beyond the literal words to identify the defect or problem that the statute was passed to rectify, using external aids to fulfill parliament's intent.

Purposive Approach

An interpretative rule that looks at the overall purpose, spirit, and aims of the legislation, commonly utilized when interpreting EU law.

Internal Aids

Material found inside the statute itself used to assist in interpretation, including the long title, short title, headings, schedules, and interpretation sections.

Ejusdem Generis

A rule of statutory language meaning 'of the same kind', providing that where general words follow a list of specific words, the general words are interpreted to include only items of the same type.

Noscitur a Sociis

A rule of language meaning 'a word is known by the company it keeps', where an ambiguous word draws its meaning from the context of the surrounding words in the section.

Hansard

The official daily transcript of parliamentary debates, admissible as an external aid to interpretation under Pepper v Hart (1993) when a statute is obscure, ambiguous, or leads to absurdity.

Declaration of Incompatibility

A formal order issued by senior courts under Section 4 of the Human Rights Act 1998 declaring that a piece of domestic primary legislation conflicts with convention rights.

Stare Decisis

The foundational Latin maxim of judicial precedent meaning 'let the decision stand', requiring judges to follow principles established in earlier rulings by higher courts.

Ratio Decidendi

The legal reason for deciding a case, which forms the binding precedent that lower courts in the hierarchy are required to follow.

Obiter Dicta

Statements made by a judge that are not part of the central legal justification for the decision ('other things said'), such as speculative comments or hypothetical observations, which create persuasive precedent.

Persuasive Authority

Legal sources that courts are not bound to follow but may consider when deciding a case, such as obiter statements, decisions from other common law jurisdictions, Privy Council rulings, and legal academic writings.