Common Law - Thoburn vs Sunderland City Council case

Legal SySTEMS AND
METHODS

Table of Contents
Importance of distinction and relative importance facts and Law in the Common law..................2
Case 1: Thoburn vs Sunderland City Council case.........................................................................3
Case 2: Council of Civil Service Union vs Minister for the Civil Service......................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Importance of distinction and relative importance facts and Law in the Common law
The Common Law system is typically followed by the British countries and former British
colonies. The significant features of the common law system are in the facts and laws in it.
This law does not have any written constitution or codified laws, this is mainly defined by the
judges, courts and tribunals on the basis of individual cases but those decisions have
precedential effect on the future cases of similar kind.1 For a current case if the court finds any
similar dispute from the previous case than the court have to follow the previous case
reasoning. The decisions of the court can only be reversed by that same court only or by
legalization. There is extensive freedom of the contract as there are few that are impelled into
the contract by law as per the decisions made in the previous cases. The most significant
feature of this Common Law system is that everything is permitted in the case which is not
prohibited by the law so the clients can use any document or proof to win the case under
common law. This law is very much useful in this kind of out of the book cases because there
also the justice will be served by the court. Or in case of any new case the court will justify the
facts and importance of law in order tom serve justice because the law should be same for any
personnel.2
Factual situations create legal disputes and it is extremely important to understand the
distinction between law and fact in common law jurisdictions. In legal terms, fact is the event
due to which litigation arises, on the other hand, the actual rules that determines how the courts
will view facts is referred as law. The common Law mainly focuses on the facts and the
decisions given or laws used in previous cases. The facts have a huge role to play in case of
this common law because that determines the judgment of the case. The common law system is
less perspective than any other law system because there is no hard coded laws or rules. Under
common law systems, actual events of a case are focused in the question of facts which maybe
examined by jury. These issues are material to the outcome of the case and requires
interpreting the conflicting views that surround the case on factual circumstances. Whereas, the
1 Buckland W and McNair A, Roman Law And Common Law (1st edn, Cambridge University Press
2011)
2 Allan H, Quaglia C and Grubits S, Fire Safety Engineering And The Approving Authorities (1st edn,
CSIRO Division of Building, Construction and Engineering 2011)
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