UK Classifications of Laws and Sources of Law: Impact on Multilingual Organizations and Commercial Entities

BSC (Hons) BUSINESS MANAGEMENT WITH
FOUNDATION
SEMESTER 1, EXAMINATION 2021/22
BUSINESS LAW
MODULE NO: BMP4002
Exam Paper Release Date & Time: Saturday 11 June 2022 at 10:00am
Submission Cut-off Date & Time: Monday 13 June 2022 at 10:00am
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWER BOOKLET
All the pages of the answer booklet should be submitted including blank ones.
Please type your answers in the spaces provided.
Insert additional pages where required.
Student Name
ID Number
Question 1: The UK Classifications of Laws
(i) Provide a clear definition of law within UK Context

When it comes to the different types of legislation and legal frameworks which form
the basis of law making and principle formulation, UK is quite different from the rest of the
world. One of the major pillars of any country’s legal framework is their head of state and
the UK head of state is the Monarch whose duties, functions and overall powers are
prescribed by the convention and this makes the country a constitutional monarchy
wherein all the major decisions need the final stamp of authority of the chosen monarch
and law by definition are broad guidelines which are passed through the parliament and
the monarch at the same time. When it comes to the strict definition of law in the UK
context, laws are strict set of rules which are enforceable by the courts and are mainly put
in place to regulate the government of a state, establish and regulate connections between
states and their subjects and to govern the behaviour of subjects towards one other in
various avenues of life. The laws so formed are from all walks of life and fall under various
different legal jurisdictions which makes the UK legal framework quite complex for
multilingual companies as they have to follow a lot of rules and compliances (Barnard,
2022).
(ii) Define and discuss the characteristics of the two main classifications of
laws in UK
As discussed above, the legal structure and law-making acts in the UK are very
complex and numerous but when it comes to important classifications of the law, there is
much more simplicity in this regard as the laws are separated into two broad divisions,
private and public law. Both these laws are very different from one another despite
belonging to the same framework as private law defines, governs and helps regulate
relationship that people have with established societal systems such as the government
and business enterprises. Private law is also known as common law and includes various
laws such as law of tort and property and family law. On the other hand, there is public law
which deal with matters that cause a direct impact on the lives of people and public
matters and mostly govern the relationship between private entities and bodies and
government bodies. This area of the classification of the laws in UK covers a diverse
background which involves all types of criminal laws, administrative laws and procedures
along with municipal and international laws which are all matters of public importance to a
nation and its government which is this particular classification of the UK based laws and
regulated with much harder frequency and intensity by the regularity bodies and the
government.
2 of 7

(iii) Identify the three different Legal systems in UK
One of the major reasons to why it is very difficult for multilingual companies to
succeed in UK is because the legal framework and systems are all very different and
involve varied degree of intensity depending upon the region in question. The three
different legal systems of the UK are listed herein.
 England and Wales – This legal system is regulated and administered by the
courts located in England and Wales and is run on the basis of the common law
and the matters of both civil and criminal cases are judged in this legal system.
 Northern Ireland – It is also a common law based legal system which is very
similar to the legal system used in England and Wales with the main difference
being that the common law used by the courts here is based on Irish common law
and the system is administrated by the courts located in Northern Ireland (Al-
Astewani, 2019).
 Scotland – This is a very unique legal system followed in the Scottish regions of
the UK and it uses an unconventional system in which ancient basis of laws such as
ones designed by romans are mixed with the current common laws used by the
England and Wales legal system (Giliker, 2018).
Question 2: The UK Source of law
(i) Identify and briefly explain the hierarchy of the principal sources of laws in
the English Legal System
Principal sources of law are the origin of various laws and are the binding
statements through which governments and states are able to control and administer their
subjects. These sources are very important as they form the backbone of the legal
framework and system that exists in different countries and all the sources also vary in
importance and follow a clear hierarchy which are all listed herein.
 Legislation (Primary and secondary) – Primary legislation covers a lot of official
acts such as those approved and signed off in the parliament of both England and
Scotland along with the statutory rules drafted by the northern Ireland assembly.
3 of 7