Sources of Law

SOURCES OF LAW

All the sources have a relevance to the operation of business and management which means that managers and employees have to be aware of them and their different features.

PRINCIPAL FEATURES

1. STATUTE. law made by the Government known also as legislation and statute.

a. This is law made by Parliament. A Bill goes through several procedures and debates in Parliament and when it is finally agreed it receives the Royal Assent. This is now a formality as our system of government is known as a constitutional monarchy. This means that the Queen is the Head of State but holds no real power as this is vested in the government.

b. Once an Act is passed it remains law until it is amended or repealed by a later Act of Parliament. Therefore, some Acts are old and yet still are relevant modern law. Some examples of particular relevance are The PARTNERSHIP ACT 1890 and The GAMING ACT 1845.

c. It is very relevant to business and management with such impact as in The Employment Rights Act 1996, The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Companies Act 1985. All of these are relevant to the study of this unit.

d. Statutes can cover criminal law and civil law issues.

2. DELEGATED LEGISLATION made by bodies authorised by the Government to make regulations to deal with certain types of behaviour.

a. These do not go through Parliament

b. They can be Orders in Council Statutory Instruments By laws.

c. The Courts can become involved if the delegated body acts beyond its powers.

d. The reasons for the growth in the use of delegated legislation arise from the following facts:-

Lack of Parliamentary time to debate.

Complex 21st. century society. Operation of the welfare state etc.

Many matters are of a technical nature

Delegated legislation has a particular relevance to management in the area of health and safety. In 1992 The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations were introduced by means of Statutory Instrument (SI 1992/2051) These contained far more detail than existed previously.

NB. Once delegated legislation comes into force it has full legal authority and the rules must be followed.

THE COMMON LAW

This is one of the oldest sources of law and it differs from the above in that the law is not written down. It is based upon principles that have evolved over the centuries and which have become acknowledged as being the law.

a. Judges base their decisions by following the decisions of judges in previously decided cases. This is known as the Doctrine of Binding Precedent.

b. Decisions of higher courts e.g. The Court of Appeal have more weight than l lower courts.

c. The common law has particular relevance within the operation of the law of contract and the law of tort.

d. Where Parliament passes an Act which changes the Common Law the Act will be applied as it can change the common law rules. (This is known as the Doctrine of the Sovereignty of Parliament.)
e. The Common Law stems from the middle ages and therefore some of the common law rules are centuries old e.g. the law of trespass.

THE LAW OF EQUITY

For procedural reasons the development of the Common Law was prevented so the King appointed the Lord Chancellor to deal with cases where there was no legal remedy. The LC decided these cases base upon principles of fairness which in turn became recognised laws. The word "equity" means fairness.

a. Separate courts of equity were established which ran in conjunction with the Common Law Courts. The two were merger in 1873 and now Common Law and Equity principles are applied in the same courts although they still differ in content.

E.g. the operation of a TRUST is governed by the law of Equity.

These are historically the four sources of English Law but there have been recent developments as a result of the membership of the United Kingdom of the European Union. This had the effect of the English Courts having to recognise and apply European Law where appropriate when resolving disputes.