BMP4002 Business Law Assessment 1: Legal System and Employment Law

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the UK legal system, beginning with an introduction to the system and its importance. It delves into the classifications of law, distinguishing between civil and criminal law, and examines the roles of the High Court and Supreme Court. The report then explores the sources of law, with a focus on case law and the process of making legislation, including delegated legislation. Finally, it addresses the UK law-making process in the context of employment law, outlining the statutory duties of employers, and discussing wrongful and unfair dismissal actions, offering a thorough understanding of key legal principles and their practical implications within the UK context.

BMP4002 Business Law
Assessment 1
Legal System for Business
Law
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Contents
Introduction 2
Part 1: Classifications of Law p-p
Define laws and identify the respective legal systems in the UK
p
Explanation with examples the following as means of classification
of laws in the English Legal system p-p
a) Civil Law p
b) Criminal Law p
Explanation of the role of the following Courts in the English Legal
system p-p
a) High Court p
b) Supreme Court p
Part 2: Source of law p-p
Explanation of Case Law as a source of laws p
Explanation of the process of making Legislation p
The meaning and examples of Delegated Legislation p
Part 3: UK law making process: Employment Law p-p
Statutory Duties of Employers to their employees p
Wrongful Dismissal and Unfair Dismissal Actions
Conclusion p
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Introduction
The UK legal system is a systematic body of rules and regulation that governs the
activities of the society. The complex and diverse legal structure of United Kingdom, gives
prior importance to right of the individual. The sources of law plays significant role in
maintaining law and order in the country and safeguards legal right of their citizens. The law
is divided into civil and criminal according to the nature, type and procedure of the
legislation. The enforcement authority are responsible for providing fair, just and equitable
treatment to the victims (Akhtar, 2020). The role of English legal system is important for the
economic growth of the nation and reducing the crime rate from the society so that the
individual can live freely without any fear and stress. This report will cover various
classifications of law and role of hierarchy of courts in the English legal system. Further, it
will include the impact of employment law on the right of employees and employer.
Part 1: Classifications of Law
Define laws and identify the respective legal systems in the UK
Law is a wider term which involves rules, regulations and principles that influences human
behavior and regulates their activities. It has no legal definition under the statute but it was
recognized by many jurists ans scholars. It is systematic application of rules and regulation in
the society to provide safe and healthy environment to an individual and protection against
the human body, property and person. Many jurist has defined the term law in a strict sense
and are applicable on the law of land.
According to Salmond “law is the principles that is recognized and applied for the effective
administration of justice”. But this definition was criticized on many grounds as it does not
specify the element of justice and fairness. There are different schools of law that has
identified the exact meaning of law. The nature of law is depends upon the functionality and
its validity (Aylott, 2022). It provides effective mechanism to resolve disputes due to fault of
any of the parties and enforce their rights through legal remedy via a court system.
The UK English legal system is diverse and complex. Many legislative framework has been
established to secure the interest of the parties and gives them effective legal solution so, that
their faith on the legal system remains protected. Law is important for each section of the
society to bring sense of belongingness and harmony among each other. Therefore, these
laws are binding upon the individual and can claim their rights through enforcement bodies.
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Explanation with examples the following as means of classification
of laws in the English Legal system
a) Civil Law: It deals with the dispute that take place between the private individuals.
These individuals comes together through legal agreement that puts legal obligation over
each other and binds them with certain terms and condition. Any of the party fails to perform
their part of rights and responsibilities as laid down under the contract will be held liable for
the breach of contract (Campbell, 2021). Civil law provides compensation and monetary
relief to the parties. It includes law of Tort, contract law, property law, employment law etc.
It affects the right of the individual and not the whole society at large. It aims to settle the
dispute between two individuals and enforce the rights and obligation of the citizens. The
civil law cover the certain issues like family disputes, personal injury, employment law and
many more.
b) Criminal Law: it covers those offenses that are committed against the human body,
property and person. It has negative impact on the society and affects the society at large. The
criminal justice system is detailed legislation that put strict punishment on the offenders for
their guilty act and charged them with imprisonment and community order to deter the
society. The criminal law aims to maintain law and order in the society and offers safe
environment where the right of an individual remains secured and protected. Criminal law
defines the offenses and provides legal procedure for its trial and prosecution. It covers
offenses like murder, fraud, cheating, sexual assault, theft, defamation etc.
Explanation of the role of the following Courts in the English Legal
system
High Court: The third highest court of UK is considered as High Court that deals with the
civil matters and have appellate jurisdiction to heard and decide the matter. They have power
to decide the appeal matters earlier made in lower courts. It follow the principle of precedent
which means they are bound with the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal (Charret-Del
Bove, 2022). Any decision made by the High Court are appeal able to the Supreme Court.
There are three divisions i.e., Queen's Bench that deals contract and tortuous maters
whereas, Chancery Division are responsible for commercial issues and family division
provides legal solution to the family matters.
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Supreme Court: It is a highest court of land that addresses the civil and criminal matter
to give prior importance to the national issues. It plays significant role in the development of
UK laws and responsible for enforcing statutory guidelines that are relevant for maintaining
law and order in the society (Damerell and Waldron, 2019). The Constitutional Reforms Act
of 2005 provides systematic legislation for creation of Supreme Court in UK. The decision of
such court are binding upon the lower Courts and involves in debating process for enactment
of legislation. The supreme Court of Appeal is also known as the House of Lords which is
final court of UK.
Part 2: Source of law
Explanation of Case Law as a source of laws
Case law are the distinctive nature of laws of the English law system, even
the case and the English law was built on the case law. These are the judgments law
which was built by the Royal Court and still is the important source of law and it is
important to understand in the case law about the court's principles which are
precedent binding. There is a doctrine which helps the case law is the “Doctrine of
Precedents” It has a meaning which says that, like cases must get decided by the
same judgments. It means it is necessary to adapt this doctrine to have the similar
facts of the case at the time of litigation of a previous case only then that case would
get decide by using the judgments of the previous case. It has a simple process to
decide the similar facts cases and this only exist in the civil law system. These case
laws are found in the Law Reports of the United Kingdom and in UK there are many
Law Reports which holds the record of every case.
Explanation of the process of making Legislation
To make the laws in UK only the legislation has the power to make new laws,
it is the primary sources of law and the only authority who holds the power of framing
new laws for the State. The United Kingdom have the parliamentary form of
government which means all the power of making laws are controlled by the
parliament only. The parliament of UK have two houses which consist of members
who deals with the every bills which came out to become the law (Keeling, and
Oakley, 2020). The first one is House of Common and the another one is House of
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Lords. In the beginning every bill get introduced firstly at House of Common and then
to the House of Lords. After getting the majority to pass the bill then it will be send to
the Monarch who is the Queen of the United Kingdom. The law making would get
done by following the procedure by passing the bill from various stages by the
houses of parliament.
 The first began with the chamber where the name of the bill got suggested.
 In the second stage after giving the name to bill, discussion was made on the
facts of the bill where error has been found.
 In third stage the finding of an error has been continued to make the bill out of
flaws.
 The fourth stage gives more opportunities to the members for bring some
changes in the bill.
 In the fifth stage voting will be done which decide the correctness of
amendments.
 In sixth stage after pointing out the errors, House of Lords send it to the
House of Commons for checking the changes made by them. In this stage
only, members of the House of Commons have a duty to find out more
corrections in the bill and also verify the changes made by House of Lords.
After the correction or the acceptance of by the House of Commons bill would
again send to the House of Lords and this cycle will be on repeat till all the
corrections and the amendments took place (Murkens, 2018).
 After the amendments made by both the houses and no changes have to be
done in bill and it got passed by the two third majority of both the houses. In
the final stage bill got sent to the Monarch for the Royal assent, without the
consent of the Queen none of the bill got converted into law.
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The meaning and examples of Delegated Legislation
The law making power is the unique power which is in the hand of the
legislation only. So if they have the power then they also have the power to
delegated the same power to some authority to make laws. Delegated means to
distribute and once the power got delegated by the only authority which is legislature
after that no law making power will transferred ahead. As the UK have the
parliamentary system of governance so it require to delegate the power of law
making which is for the states and for the whole country.
Part 3: UK law making process: Employment Law
Statutory Duties of Employers to their employees
There are many duties of the employers towards their employee's and in UK
several efforts has been made to bring such laws which builds the relationship
between employer and the employee's. It is highly in demand because the value of
employee's were not understood by their employers, they were treated bad and even
at the time of leave they didn't get the parental or maternal leave. There are some
rights of the workers and the employee's which have to be provided now after
enforcing the Employment Law in UK. This act has some sources fro where it came
and from where the ideas would brought to enact the act like Employment Act.
 Common Law- These are the law which are not made by the legislature, these
are the common laws which come into force as per the society demands and
conditions. Through the common laws requirement to protect the right of the
employee's arise (Weatherill, 2022).
 Statute- There is a history of forcing the employment act, before this several
act's was discovered till 1970s.
 European Law- When the domestic law of UK got failed and become
contradict to another law then, these laws can be used.
Wrongful Dismissal and Unfair Dismissal Actions
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Everyone has their own individual rights to protect. All have the rights to do
work and also to leave the work according to the procedure. But, the employer didn't
followed the same procedures, they exploited the employee's in various manner like
not providing the minimum wages to them, not providing the medical facilities and
after their work got complete they kicked out the employee's without any procedure
followed (Wincott, 2020). Its not fair according to the UK Employment law to remove
the employee's without any information and without following any procedure. These
rights and protection are given under section 108- 110 of the Employment Act.
Conclusion
From the above report it has been concluded that, there are two main
classification of laws which are Civil Law and the Criminal Laws. The above report
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described the English legal system with the law making process which is done by the
only law making authority i.e. Legislation and other sources of UK laws are case laws
also described. The role of High Court and the Supreme Court got discussed and in
the last of the report, Employment Act would got described by putting the light on the
provisions of removing the employee's by their employers by unfair manner.
REFERENCES
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Akhtar, Z., 2020. Low Skilled Jobs, Free Movement Migration and Employment in the
UK. Labor Law Journal, 71(3), pp.144-153.
Aylott, E., 2022. Employment Law: A Practical Introduction (Vol. 21). Kogan Page
Publishers.
Campbell, M., 2021. How to determine the law governing an arbitration agreement: direction
from the UK Supreme Court. International Arbitration Law Review, 24(1), pp.28-36.
Charret-Del Bove, M., 2022. What Future for Human Rights in the UK Post-Brexit?. Revue
Française de Civilisation Britannique, 27, p.2.
Damerell, P. and Waldron, T., 2019. UK perspective. In SEPs, SSOs and FRAND (pp. 149-
170). Routledge.
Keeling, J. and Oakley, L., 2020. THE LAW AND SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND
YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE UK. Safeguarding Across the Life Span, p.39.
Murkens, J.E.K., 2018. Judicious review: the constitutional practice of the UK Supreme
Court. The Cambridge Law Journal, 77(2), pp.349-374.
Weatherill, S., 2022. Comparative Internal Market Law: The UK and the EU. Yearbook of
European Law, 40, pp.431-474.
Wincott, D., 2020. Symposium introduction: The paradox of structure: The UK state, society
and ‘Brexit’. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 58(6), pp.1578-1586.
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