Business Law Assessment 1: Legal System and Employment Law

This report, prepared for a Business Law assessment, provides a comprehensive overview of the UK legal system. It begins by defining laws and outlining the legal systems in the UK, including those of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The report then delves into the classifications of law, differentiating between civil and criminal law, and explaining the roles of various courts within the English legal system, specifically the High Court and the Supreme Court. A significant portion is dedicated to the sources of law, with detailed explanations of case law and the process of making legislation, including delegated legislation. Finally, the report examines UK employment law, focusing on the statutory duties of employers to their employees, covering topics like identifying risks, providing information, and ensuring a safe workplace. The report also touches on wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal actions, providing a holistic view of the legal landscape relevant to business operations and employment practices within the UK.

BMP4002 Business Law
Assessment 1
Legal System for Business
Law
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................3
Part 1: Classifications of Law......................................................................................................3
Define laws and identify the respective legal systems in the UK..........................................3
Explanation with examples the following as means of classification of laws in the English
Legal system..........................................................................................................................4
Explanation of the role of the following Courts in the English Legal system........................4
Part 2: Source of law..................................................................................................................5
Explanation of Case Law as a source of laws ...................................................................5
Explanation of the process of making Legislation.................................................................6
The meaning and examples of Delegated Legislation...........................................................7
Part 3: UK law making process: Employment Law ....................................................................7
Statutory Duties of Employers to their employees ............................................................7
Wrongful Dismissal and Unfair Dismissal Actions ..............................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
There are different legal systems in various countries which allows business to run
successfully. This report is going to contain the classification of laws which defines the legal
system and role of courts in the country. It also represents case laws and also shows the
process of making legislation. Moreover, it also shows the duties of employers towards the
employees and wrongful dismissal will also be discussed.
Part 1: Classifications of Law
Define laws and identify the respective legal systems in the UK
Laws are the set of the rules and regulation which a country follows to regulate the
actions of its country members and are enforced by the governmental and social institutions.
The laws are created by the government, which is mandatory to be followed by the citizens. It
is important for countries as it creates guideline for the citizen about what is going to be
accepted. United Kingdom has divided its legal system that is one for Scotland and Northern
Ireland and another one for England and Wales.
Legal system of England and Wales
In UK, the head of state is known as Monarch. The law system in England and Wales
are made up by passing the legislation and by creating a precedent through case laws.
Legislation are created by parliament which is consisted of Monarch, House of Lords and
House of Commons(Strickson and De La Iglesia, 2020).
Legal system of Scotland
This is also known as Scots laws. This legal system is consisted of both civil law and
common law. It is consisted of four sources such as Legislation, custom, specific academic
writings and legal precedent.
Legal system of Northern Ireland
These legal system includes a written constitution. These legal system also includes rights
related to the popularly elected president, constitutional rights or separation of powers.
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Explanation with examples the following as means of classification of laws in the
English Legal system
a) Civil Law:
Civil law is essentially meant to protect the rights of individual or organization. It helps in
settling disputes between the people and also involves the compensation to people. This law
is about solving the family conflicts or disputes such as issue related to children's or childcare
arrangements and divorces. It also includes laws related to any injuries such as medical,
accidents or related to any unpaid payments. These cases are usually filed by the private
parties and are decided by the judge. It is important to safeguard the rights of the citizen and
to provide compensation to the one who have suffered(Zhang, 2022).
b) Criminal Law:
Criminal Law is about the breaches and offences which negatively affects the whole society.
This law is not related to solving the problems related to an individual person. This law
defines the outlines of laws which are unacceptable or acceptable in UK. It includes laws
related to murder, fraud, drug dealing, criminal damage etc. If the citizens break the laws,
then government will charge the penalty in the form of fines or maybe in the form of prison.
The aim behind this law is to maintain the stability of particular state or the overall society. If
a person breaks the criminal law , then they have to face a criminal trial at court.
Explanation of the role of the following Courts in the English Legal system
a) High Court:
High Court is known to be a third highest court in UK. High court deals with the cases related
to civil laws and works on the decisions made in the lower courts. These are usually heard by
the one judge, but includes certain types of hearings such as judicial and criminal cases are
assigned to the divisional court, which has two or more then two judges. Judge sits
occasionally in the high court for the cases related to fraud, defamation and false
imprisonment. They are bound to follow the decisions of all the higher authorities such as the
court of justice of European union, the Supreme court and the court of appeal. Any decision
made by the judge of the high court is passed to court of appeal and then to the Supreme
court. It is divided into three division: the Chancellor division, the Queen's or King's Bench
Division and the Family Division. These divisions are discussed briefly:
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 The Chancellor Division: This is involved in hearing decisions which are related to
real estates, property claims and business property conflicts. These division is made
by the chancellor with the involvement of president of this division.
 The Queen or King's bench division: This division hears cases related to the libel and
slander, contract and tort etc. This decisions are made by the president.
 The family Division: This hears cases related to the marriage, adoption or any other
family issues. This decision is taken by the president like Queen's bench division.
b) Supreme Court:
Supreme court was made after the Constitutional Reform act, 2005. Earlier before the
creation of supreme court twelve senior judges of the Lords of Appeal are used to sit in the
House of Lords. Creating Supreme court means that the senior judges are shifted from the
parliamentary process. It is important to know that the supreme court is a UK body. It is
separated from both the England and Wales courts and Also from the Scotland and Northern
Ireland(Weinstein-Tull, 2020). They initiated there functions from the October, 2009.
Supreme Court settles disputes related to government authorities and also deals with the
matters which are referred by President.
Part 2: Source of law
Explanation of Case Law as a source of laws
Case laws are the decisions which are crated by judges in legal cases. These laws are based
on the judicial decisions and are not based on the statutes, regulations or constitutions. These
laws are concerned with the unique disputes which are resolved by the courts by looking at
the facts of the case. This law is important to maintain the predictability of juridical relations.
Case laws are reported in the law report of UK and provides most of the laws of UK.
Through, doctrine of precedent it acts as a source of law. Case laws are considered crucial s
they help in analyzing the situation critically. These sources are used in the situation where
the involvement of higher authority is not required(Henderson and Bench-Capon, 2019).
Legal system in this laws are maintained and kept stable to maintain the decorum and to
remove the conflicts between new and previous judgments.
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Explanation of the process of making Legislation
Legislation is known as the process that has been used to the make the laws. There are
various steps involved in the process of law making in the English legal system. It is
described as:
Bill: Bill is in the form of draft which is made by the government officials. This draft
includes the details related to the proposed law. It can be of three types such as private bills,
public bills and private members.
 Private Bill: These bills are created by the local authority, public corporation and local
authority. It helps in protecting the rights of individuals.
 Public Bill: Implementation of these laws affects the society as whole or a large
portion of it. They are created by the cabinet to change laws in country. For example,
Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and Criminal Justice Act, 2003.
 Private Members Bill: These bills are prepared by the MP. They must win the election
to create bills. For example, 1967 Abortion Act.
First Reading: In first reading, title of bill and what it includes are read by the House of
Commons.
Second Reading: In this step, details on the bills are the discussed and amended. It can be
amended by voting process which takes place between MPs. It also includes the committee
stage where if any further arrangements needed are made and report stage where the voting
process done on the further amendments.
Third Reading: At this stage, bills are represented to the house. At this stage also, debate
takes place and then voting on whether the bill should be accepted or rejected(Begley and
et.al, 2019).
Considerations of amendments: If the final changes are made to the law, then it is sent to
commons to agree. The changes can be accepted or rejected by the lords. There may be a
several rounds for this process which are known as 'ping pong'.
Royal Assent: When both the houses agree with the text, then the bills are approved by
monarch and known as 'Act of Parliament'.
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The meaning and examples of Delegated Legislation
Delegated legislation is the process where laws are created by the other person without the
involvement of parliament but not without the permission of parliament. There are different
types of delegated legislation:
 Statutory Instruments: In statutory instruments ministerial or departmental orders or
rules are issued by the ministers, civil servants or commissioners under the act of
parliament.
 Provisional Orders: This includes the general rules which are made by the individuals
and bodies and are authorized by ministers.
 Bylaws: These are rules and regulations which are created by the local government
bodies for the smooth flow of operations. These are applied on the area of authority or
local government(Lee, 2018).
 Order-in-council: In this power is delegated to British Monarch when there is a need
to exercise the legislative powers in the country.
 Emergency orders: These are the special orders which are taken by the government at
the time of emergency periods.
 Court Decisions: If some of the court decisions are binding as the act of parliament,
then they are also constituted as the act of parliament.
Part 3: UK law making process: Employment Law
Statutory Duties of Employers to their employees
There are various duties which are need to be performed by the employer towards the
employee according to laws of employment which are prevailing in the united kingdom.
These are as follows:
 Identifying the risk: Employer should identify the risk which is related to work and
the employee has to perform the laws in order to ensure there health and safety.
 Providing Information: Only identifying the risk is not enough, employer must
provide all the information to its employees about the associated risk to its workers.
 Consult employees: The employees should be consulted and should be involved in the
decision-making process on the matters which are related to them and also should
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take suggestions from the employees(Sonday, 2019). This will increase the motivation
among employees and also enhances there productivity.
 In discrimination: There should be no discrimination with employees at workplace.
Every employee should be treated equally and there should be no discrimination on
the basis of there caste or religion.
 Pay& benefits: Employers must be provided at least the minimum wages for carrying
out there daily activities. They must be rewarded with the extra payments or
commission if they work extra or work more than their capabilities.
 Safe workplace: Employers must create a safe workplace for its employees by making
prevention's from heavy plant and machinery and by creating a safe work practices for
its employees(Melzer and Tracey, 2020). They should also offer adequate training to
its employees for increasing there productivity.
Wrongful Dismissal and Unfair Dismissal Actions
Wrongful Dismissal is occurs when the employer terminates the employee or worker without
giving a notice or within less time give on notice period. It is important to give information to
employee whenever the employee want to terminate. The information must be provided
within a period of one week to twelve weeks. This is also known as the breach of contract of
the employment. The employer has the right to dismiss employee if they commit some
serious or illegal crime.
Unfair dismissal is the situation where the employee get terminates from the employer
without any reason(Ezeabaogu, Chukwu and Aguwamba, 2019). This is considered wrong
when the employee has asked for termination but the process is not right can claim the
dismissal as unfair. According to Employments Rights Act 1996, it is stated that it is right of
employees to gain a reason for dismissal.
CONCLUSION
English Legal system plays a very important role in the United Kingdom. It has been
concluded from the above report that civil laws deals with the disputes related to individuals
and organization and criminal laws deals with the crimes related to overall society. The report
also influences on the classification of laws and roles of courts that influences the decision-
making process in the country(Freyens and Gong, 2020). Further, it includes the sources of
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law, process of making legislation and delegated legislation. It also shows the various duties
of employers towards the employee and also about the unfair dismissal of the employers.
REFERENCES
Begley, P. and et.al, 2019. Evidence-informed or value-based? exploring the scrutiny of
legislation in the UK Parliament. The journal of legislative studies. 25(1). pp.1-20.
Ezeabaogu, A. N., Chukwu, B. A. and Aguwamba, S. M., 2019. The Effect of Wrongful
Dismissal on Organisational Performance. Journal of Management and Economic
Studies. 1(4). pp.42-54.
Freyens, B. P. and Gong, X., 2020. Judicial arbitration of unfair dismissal cases: The role of
peer effects. International Review of Law and Economics. 64. p.105947.
Henderson, J. and Bench-Capon, T., 2019, June. Describing the development of case law.
In Proceedings of the seventeenth international conference on artificial intelligence
and law (pp. 32-41).
Lee, M., 2018. Brexit and environmental protection in the United Kingdom: governance,
accountability and law making. Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law. 36(3).
pp.351-359.
Melzer, A. and Tracey, D., 2020. Employers Should Owe a Duty of Loyalty to Their
Workers. Cardozo L. Rev. De-Novo. p.112.
Sonday, S., 2019. Employers, understand your fiduciary duties. HR Future. 2019(4). pp.8-9.
Strickson, B. and De La Iglesia, B., 2020, March. Legal judgement prediction for UK courts.
In Proceedings of the 2020 the 3rd international conference on information science
and system (pp. 204-209).
Weinstein-Tull, J., 2020. The Structures of Local Courts. Virginia Law Review. 106(5).
pp.1031-1106.
Zhang, Z., 2022. Beyond Civil Laws. In A History of Civil Law in Early China: Cases,
Statutes, Concepts and Beyond (pp. 209-250). Brill Nijhoff.
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