English law

The English constitution and the English common law grew up together, very gradually, more as the result of the accretion of custom than through deliberate, rational legislation by some “sovereign” lawgiver. Parliament grew out of the Curia Regis, the King’s Council, in which the monarch originally…

…a written constitution and the United Kingdom an unwritten one. In one sense this is true: in the United States there is a formal document called the Constitution, whereas there is no such document in the United Kingdom. In fact, however, many parts of the British constitution exist in written…

The United Kingdom takes an incorporationist view, holding that customary international law forms part of the common law. British law, however, views treaties as purely executive, rather than legislative, acts. Thus, a treaty becomes part of domestic law only if relevant legislation is adopted. The same…

Early common law made no special provision for children who committed crimes. Provided that the child was over the minimum age for criminal responsibility (originally seven) and had “mischievous discretion” (the ability to tell right from wrong), the child was fully liable as…

…in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth in the 19th and 20th centuries was initially carried on part-time by attorneys, barristers, and judges, and some still is. Sir William Blackstone, the first holder of a chair of English law—the Vinerian professorship at Oxford—came from the bar and…

…countries too, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, many of the leading law firms have merged with foreign counterparts, an innovation that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago. Meanwhile, a number of the most economically advanced civil-law states, such as Japan and South Korea, have been…

…to the rules applied in English and American courts of equity and also to statute law. A standing expository difficulty is that, whereas the United Kingdom is a unitary state in international law, it comprises three major (and other minor) legal systems, those of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern…

The legal systems rooted in the English common law have diverged from their parent system so greatly over time that, in many areas, the legal approaches of common-law countries differ as much from one another as they do from civil-law…

…1780, Wallingford, Oxfordshire) was an English jurist, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vol. (1765–69), is the best-known description of the doctrines of English law. The work became the basis of university legal education in England and North America. He was knighted in 1770.

Wolsey’s influence on England’s judicial institutions was far more substantial. Possessed of a great legal mind, he extended the jurisdiction of the Star Chamber—the King’s Council sitting as a court—and used it to impose Henry’s justice on lawless nobles. The conciliar committee that he delegated to hear suits…

…of Northampton, (1176), group of ordinances agreed upon by King Henry II of England and the magnates in council at Northampton. The ordinances were issued as instructions to six committees of three judges each, who were to visit the six circuits into which England was divided for the purpose. The…

English manorial court, or halimoot, that any lord could hold for and among his tenants. By the 13th century the steward of the manor, a lawyer, usually presided; originally, the suitors of the court (i.e., the doomsmen), who were bound to attend, acted as judges,…

English criminal court for the punishment of small offenses. The use of the word leet, denoting a territorial and a jurisdictional area, spread throughout England in the 14th century, and the term court leet came to mean a court in which a private lord assumed,…

England, the most important of a group of financial courts organized during the reign of Henry VIII; the others were the courts of General Surveyors, First Fruits and Tenths, and Wards and Liveries. They were instituted chiefly so that the crown might gain better control…

In England the common-law courts became firmly established as the principal organs of royal justice by the 14th century. In earlier days they had exercised a wide jurisdiction in framing and applying the rules of the common law, but their most creative period was over. A…

English court of law that originated from Henry II’s assignment in 1178 of five members of his council to hear pleas (civil disputes between individuals), as distinguished from litigation to which the crown was a party. This group of councillors did not immediately emerge as…

English ecclesiastical court instituted by the crown in the 16th century as a means to enforce the laws of the Reformation settlement and exercise control over the church. In its time it became a controversial instrument of repression, used against those who refused to acknowledge…

England, one of the prerogative courts that grew out of the king’s council (Curia Regis) in the late 15th century. The court’s primary function was to deal with civil petitions from poor people and the king’s servants.

English law, the court made up of judges and privy councillors that grew out of the medieval king’s council as a supplement to the regular justice of the common-law courts. It achieved great popularity under Henry VIII for its ability to enforce the law when…

…curia is well illustrated in England’s Curia, also known as the Curia Regis, or Aula Regis (“King’s Court”). It was introduced at the time of the Norman Conquest (1066) and lasted to about the end of the 13th century. The Curia Regis was the germ from which the higher courts…

In England today the ecclesiastical courts exercise jurisdiction in civil cases concerning church buildings and in criminal cases in which clergymen are accused of ecclesiastical crimes.

…of the 13th century, the English king’s common-law courts had largely limited the relief available in civil cases to the payment of damages and to the recovery of the possession of property. They had refused to extend and diversify their types of relief to meet the needs of new and…

England, formerly the court presided over by the deputy of the admiral of the fleet. The Black Book of the Admiralty says it was founded in the reign of Edward I, but it actually appears to have been established by Edward III about 1360. At…

England and Wales, any of the inferior courts with primarily criminal jurisdiction covering a wide range of offenses from minor traffic violations and public-health nuisances to somewhat more serious crimes, such as petty theft or assault. Magistrates’ courts with similar jurisdictions may be found in…

In England, part-time lay judges greatly outnumber full-time professional judges. Called magistrates or justices of the peace, they dispose of more than 95 percent of all criminal cases and do so with general public satisfaction and the approbation of most lawyers (see magistrates’ court). Professional judges…

Although petit juries in England and the United States historically have contained 12 members, there is no uniform number. Numerical requirements for a valid verdict vary (e.g., unanimity in most courts in the United States, a majority in Scotland and Italy, two-thirds in Portugal), as do subject areas of…

English law, court through which the discretionary powers, privileges, and legal immunities reserved to the sovereign were exercised. Prerogative courts were originally formed during the period when the monarch exercised greater power than Parliament.

England and Wales, sessions of a court held four times a year by a justice of the peace to hear criminal charges as well as civil and criminal appeals. The term also applied to a court held before a recorder, or judge, in a borough…

In England crimes are classified as either summary offenses, which are tried by magistrates’ courts, or indictable offenses, for which there is a right to a jury trial. There also are offenses that may in some cases be treated in either way. Since the mid-20th century,…

In modern England assizes (abolished in 1971) were periodic sessions of the High Court of Justice held in the counties; they dealt with issues such as the trying of prisoners who committed crimes in jail and regular cases of treason and murder. In France (and in Germany…

In England a brief is a document of instructions prepared by a solicitor for a barrister to follow in court. Only the barrister may appear before the high court but can act on behalf of a litigant only pursuant to instructions from a solicitor. In the…

…first an original writ from England’s Court of Queen’s Bench to the judges of inferior courts ordering them to present certain records. Certiorari was later expanded to include the chancery (equity) courts. The writ was abolished in 1938, but the High Court of Justice retained the right to make an…

The earliest English court reports were the Year Books produced from the late 13th to the 16th century. From 1537 until 1865 hundreds of series of English reports were published under the names of the reporters themselves. During both periods reporting was a disorganized private enterprise, the…

In common-law countries, such as Great Britain and the United States, general law codes are the exception rather than the rule, largely because much of the law is based on previous judicial decisions. In the United States these codifications tend to be narrower, covering different types of procedure or penal…

…formal writ issued by the English crown commanding an official to perform a specific act within the duty of the office. It later became a judicial writ issued from the Court of Queen’s Bench, in the name of the sovereign, at the request of an individual suitor whose interests were…

…large number of offenses in England during the 17th and 18th centuries, but it was never applied as widely as the law provided. As in other countries, many offenders who committed capital crimes escaped the death penalty, either because juries or courts would not convict them or because they were…

The common-law system originated in England in the Middle Ages. In the 17th century relations between the courts and the executive developed into a constitutional struggle between the Stuart kings and the judges over the judges’ right to decide questions affecting the royal power and even to pronounce an independent…

…for the structure of early English society.

England after the Norman Conquest of 1066 also was influenced by Roman example, and the clerics who staffed the Norman and Plantagenet monarchies and who provided the earliest of their judges enabled the notion of a legal profession, and especially of…

In England the Norman conquerors continued the movement toward legal unity begun by the Anglo-Saxons by imposing on the country a centralized form of government more powerful than any on the Continent. In the 12th century Henry II made the king’s court a permanent court of…

…the Commonwealth, the system of English law that has acquired a status and universality to match Roman law. English law has its origins in Anglo-Saxon times, and two of its hallmarks are its preference for customary law (the common law) rather than statute law and its system of application by…

…of new industries, as in England at the time of Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603). However, the sentiment slowly grew that the English crown was abusing its authority to grant such rights, and the Privy Council and then the common-law courts began to scrutinize patents more carefully. Finally, in 1623…

The English common law is the residual law in the high courts of Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), and Madras (now Chennai); and, at times with the aid of relevant British statutes, it is the residual law also in all other jurisdictions representing the old…

…network of civil and criminal courts in place of the deputy nawab’s. The same law was administered by British judges, who were often incompetent, but a model was provided into which Western ideas and practices could later be fed.

…supreme court decided to administer English law (the only law it knew) and to apply it not only to all the British in Bengal but also to all Indians connected with them; in practice this meant those Indians in Calcutta, and it led to such grave abuses as the hanging…

… enactments and much law of English origin continued to be applied, but English ceased to be the predominant legal language and was immediately replaced by Hebrew. The law was thenceforth made by the democratic authorities of the autonomous state of Israel, which, in spite of an Arab minority, became Jewish…

Common-law marriages were valid in England until Lord Hardwicke’s Act of 1753. The act did not apply to Scotland, however, and for many years thereafter couples went north across the border to thwart the ban. On the European continent, common-law marriages were frequent in the Middle Ages, but their legality…

…law as it developed in England specified the requisites of marriage as being the following: each party shall have attained a certain age; each shall be sexually competent and mentally capable; each shall be free to marry; each shall give his or her consent to marry; the parties shall be…

The influence of English law (which was operative even during the period of the republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State) has been most marked in criminal law and procedure, civil procedure, evidence, constitutional law, and, particularly, the commercial field of companies, bills of exchange, maritime law,…

, marriage, divorce, inheritance) and British commercial and common law (modified to suit the needs of the Marxist government) and, in rural areas, a combination of Sharīʿah and ʿurf.

…local courts is based on English common law, decisions of the higher British courts are of persuasive value; in fact, a few statutes of the British Parliament that were declared by ordinance (decree) to apply to Zambia are in force so far as circumstances permit. Most of the laws presently…

…opinions originated very early in English law as a result of extralegal consultation of judges by the king or the House of Lords on questions that often were not even related to the law. The function of the opinions was wholly non- or extralegal.

In England appeals on matters of fact in some instances go to different courts than do those on matters of law. The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal. The Supreme Court of Japan serves as a final appeals court on questions of fact, law,…

English law, the extinction of civil and political rights resulting from a sentence of death or outlawry after a conviction of treason or a felony.

In Great Britain a noncombatant corps was established during World War I, but many conscientious objectors refused to belong to it. During World War II, three types of exemption could be granted: (1) unconditional; (2) conditional on the undertaking of specified civil work; (3) exemption only…

In M’Naghten’s Case (1843) the English judges held that “to establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused as labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as…

In England it is said that a full pardon clears the person from all infamy, removing all disqualifications and other obloquy, so that a pardoned person may take action for defamation against anyone who thereafter refers to him or her as a convict. In the United…

In England and the United States legislators are immune from civil liability for statements made during legislative debate. They are also immune from criminal arrest, although they are subject to legal action for crime. French law and practice prohibits the arrest of a member of the…

In Great Britain the House of Commons serves as prosecutor and the House of Lords as judge in an impeachment proceeding. In the federal government of the United States, the House of Representatives institutes impeachment proceedings by authorizing a formal inquiry by the House Judiciary Committee,…

…jury system was eliminated in England in 1933, and current law there provides for a bill of indictment to be presented to the court when the person accused has been committed to trial by a magistrate and in certain other cases.

…the Court of Chancery in England had begun to grant injunctions as a remedy for the inadequacy of decisions in the common-law courts. Often an award of damages did not fully protect the plaintiff (e.g., if the defendant intended to continue a trespass or a breach of covenant despite the…

Thus, a defendant under English law may issue a notice—called a third-party notice—containing a statement of the nature of the claim made by him against a third party, relevant to the original subject matter of the action or of issues to be determined. A third party has the same…

…their legal systems from the English model; and civil law, as represented by countries of western Europe and Latin America and certain Asian and African countries that have modeled their legal systems on western European patterns.

In England there is no general statute of limitations applicable to criminal actions, although statutes defining certain actions as criminal frequently have included time limits for their prosecution.

In some countries, particularly Great Britain, the law of libel presents insuperable problems to novelists who, innocent of libellous intent, are nevertheless sometimes charged with defamation by persons who claim to be the models for characters in works of fiction. Disclaimers to the effect that “resemblances to real-life people…

…system is best exemplified in Britain, where there is no formal legal monopoly of medicine. The protected status is that of registered medical practitioner. Under the Medical Act of 1978, persons who have fulfilled statutory education and examination requirements are entitled to be registered. Registered physicians have certain exclusive rights,…

Originally, procedure in English local and feudal courts resembled quite closely that of other countries with a Germanic legal tradition. Unlike the continental European countries, however, England never romanized its indigenous procedure but instead developed a procedure of its own capable of substantial growth and adjustment. England’s ability…

…exist between the laws of England, Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and Northern Ireland. Significant bodies of regional law also exist alongside national private law in France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Thus, in the Alsace-Lorraine area of France, parties may still resort to concepts of German law…

In England during the reign of Edward II a proclamation was issued against the “outrageous and excessive multitude of meats and dishes which the great men of the Kingdom had used, and still used, in their castles.” Besides the standing regulations governing dress, Edward III in…

…not at first necessary in England, where penal laws against those who failed to conform to the established church were so severe as automatically to exclude such persons from public life. In the more tolerant climate of the late 17th and 18th centuries, Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters were normally…

English law, by contrast, is much more jealous of reputation, though numerous complicated defenses also make sure that free speech is not totally throttled. But in the main the English law of defamation is complex and archaic. The old distinction between libel and slander (defamatory…

Although Great Britain provided legal aid earlier (1949) than the United States, the United States was at the forefront in providing assigned counsel. Beginning in 1963 in Gideon v. Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that upheld the rights of indigent…

Today the British attorney general and his assistant, the solicitor general, represent the crown in the courts and are legal advisers to the sovereign and the sovereign’s ministers. The attorney general is a member of the government but not of the cabinet. He is consulted on the…

In medieval England there were bailiffs who served the lord of the manor, while others served the hundred courts and the sheriff. The bailiffs of manors were, in effect, superintendents; they collected fines and rents, served as accountants, and were, in general, in charge of the land…

…types of practicing lawyers in England and Wales, the other being the solicitor. In general, barristers engage in advocacy (trial work) and solicitors in office work, but there is a considerable overlap in their functions. The solicitor, for example, may appear as an advocate in the lower courts, whereas barristers…

The office originated in England and was first referred to as custos placitorum (Latin: “keeper of the pleas”) in the Articles of Eyre of 1194, although there is some evidence that it may have existed earlier. The name was originally “crowner,” or “coronator,” derived from the Latin corona, meaning…

In England and Wales a magistrate is appointed on behalf of the crown, to keep the peace within a specific district. The duties of the modern-day justices of the peace, who preside in the magistrates’ courts of England and Wales, evolved from those first bestowed upon…

English judicial official of the king who, unlike all other officers of the central administration, was not a member of the king’s official household. The justiciarship originated in the king’s need for a responsible subordinate who could take a wide view of the affairs of…

…lord chancellor to concentrate on constitutional affairs.

…justice, the head of the judiciary of England and Wales. The lord chief justice traditionally served as head of the Queen’s (or King’s) Bench Division of the High Court of Justice and as head of the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal. Under a constitutional reform of 2005 that…

…honorific office that came to England with the Norman ducal household. From 1153 it was held by the earls of Leicester and then of Lancaster until it came into the hands of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, who assumed control over the minor King Richard II and strengthened the…

…the lord steward also had legal and judicial authority. He presided over the counting house, or Board of Green Cloth, where together with the cofferer and others he controlled expenditures and made the necessary provisions for the royal household. The board also had the power to maintain peace within the…

In the United Kingdom, prosecution is carried out in the name of the crown. In this sense the crown can be said to prosecute, and the prosecution is often referred to as “the crown.”

In England and Wales the recorder, in the course of time, came to be a locality’s chief legal officer and sole judge at quarter sessions. When the quarter sessions courts were abolished by the Courts Act of 1971, the recorder’s jurisdiction moved to the Crown Court.

…types of practicing lawyers in England and Wales—the other being the barrister, who pleads cases before the court. Solicitors carry on most of the office work in law, and, in general, a barrister undertakes no work except through a solicitor, who prepares and delivers the client’s instructions. Solicitors confer with…