English Legal System: Sources of Law

English Legal System
Sources of Law
Introduction to the branches of government
Relationship between legal authorities

 The three branches of government in England and Wales
are:
1. The Legislature
2. The Executive
3. The Judiciary
Institutions and doctrines in the
English Legal System

 It is the legislature’s role in the constitution to make the law
 Traditionally the legislator may have been an individual, the King
or Prince who made the laws for his subjects
 In England from the middle ages onwards Parliament became the
legislature for the country as a whole
 This reached its classical expression during the Reformation
when the King or Queen-in-Parliament was held to be the highest
and most important law-making institution
The Legislature

 The sovereignty, or as it is sometimes expressed, the
supremacy of Parliament, reached its classical formulation in
the writings of Professor Dicey in the 19th Century
This means that Parliament in traditional constitutional theory can
do whatsoever it likes
The Sovereignty of
Parliament

 The executive in this country is the Crown whose functions are exercised
through the government, in particular by the Prime Minister
 The executive also comprises the wider organs of the State with executive
authority such as the police, the civil service and local authorities
 The definitions given to public authority vary from on area of public and
European Law to another
 It is important to realise the State, and hence the executive, can have a
much wider definition depending on the context in which it is regarded
 The executive proposes and enforces the law
Executive

 The Judges’ function is to apply the law in the cases which
come before them
 Whether judges make law is a more moot point
 However, it is fundamental that the judges should be
independent of the executive
 The Judiciary can sometimes come into conflict with the
executive
The Judiciary