Structure of the English Legal System and Sources of Law

Unit 7

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ACTIVITY ONE.............................................................................................................................3
Structure of the English legal system.....................................................................................3
Sources of Law.......................................................................................................................4
Impact of Company, Employment and Contract Law............................................................5
ACTIVITY TWO.............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERNCES...................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business Law is the body of law which deals with the business and commercial matters. The
business law is covered under two distinct areas, one the regulation of commercial entities in
accordance with the law and second regulation of commercial transactions. It is also known as
corporate law or commercial law (Aqifi and Emini, 2019). There are many legal entities from
sole trader to partnership, profit making firms to non- profit organisations and these are governed
by law and required not to practice in contrary to law. Thus, the report examines nature of UK
legal system accompanied by relevant law applicable to businesses.
ACTIVITY ONE
Structure of the English legal system
The United Kingdom consist three separate legal systems one each for England, Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland. The constitution of UK is derived from various sources some are
written, called statutory law while others are unwritten, includes conventions. In the structure of
English legal system, the decision of higher courts causes binding effect on courts below it.
Supreme Court is at the top of the hierarchy structure, also formally known as House of Lords.
The decisions causes binding effect until the Lord Chancellor issued the statement that former
decisions can be ignored if it appeared right to do so. Though the Supreme Court is the highest
court but the decisions made in European Justice of Courts led binding effect on all UK courts.
Further there are many committees and courts (European Court of Human Rights) whose
decision are persuasive but not causes binding effect on English Courts. (Grammond and Guay,
2021)
The Court of Appeal which is below the Supreme Court in the structure. The court splits
the divisions in two parts Civil and Criminal. The decisions in both the courts are binding on
courts lower to it. The Civil division is subject to exceptions of the binding effect rule as stated
in Young v Bristol Aeroplane Co. Ltd [1944]. In Criminal division, if court finds that the former
decision was made on the basis of misunderstanding of law then court is not bound to follow
such decision as in R v Greater Manchester Cororner ex p tal [1983]. Further the Divisional
Courts falls under category of three division of the High Court Division to which the jurisdiction
is appellate. These judicial bodies are bound by the decisions from the Supreme Court and Court