Common law system ,as the another side of civil law system which is mainly based on code system,usually applies the earlier case decided by the court decision which laid a legal principle known as doctrine of precedent .Thus, this legal system views decision of the court as a major source of law. Common law system emerged in English and exported around the world wherever British influence dominated.The legal system of the USA,and the “old ”commonwealth countries, are all based on the English common law.
The doctrine of precedent which is a fundamental principle of common law legal system means that the judges normally follow the legal rules created by the judge in earlier case where judge have made the legal rule known as precedent.
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Common law system is a representative of legal system in which judges make law .The cases which the judges decide applies many doctrines such as the doctrine of precedent as the a fundamental rule . Owing to this legal system, it brings about many advantages such as convenient saving-time device,certainty and consistently Firstly, the way that judges apply doctrine of binding of precedent play an important role to act as a convenient saving-time device for the the common law system. It is simply said that if there is a the similar case ,the judges should be decided in the similar manner.In reality,there are no exactly the same case.The court only consider the general rule underly the case known as ratio decidendi whether it is in accordance with the past decision or not.And the ratio decidendi will relate to the next following case until the case is avoid by the judge by means of distinguishing,reversing and overruling .For example,in the case of Donoghue v Stevenson[1932] AC 562,the House of Lords held that a manufacturer owed a duty of care to the ultimate consumer of the product. This set a binding precedent which was followed in Grant v Australian Knitting Mills [1936] AC
The Australian, p.11. Mabo and Others v. The State of Queensland [1992]175 CLR 1 F.C. 92/014 No. 2 (Judge Brennan).
The legal system does not follow a precedent instead it deals with each case on the individual level. It
Evaluate the effectiveness of the various elements of the Australian Legal System in achieving justice for victims, offenders and society. In your response you will need to assess the effectiveness of the different elements of the Australian criminal justice system. Justice is defined as exerting fairness and impartiality during a trial. In the Australian Legal System, young offenders are shown substantial levels of justice. They are identified as not entirely understanding the ramifications of their actions, and are therefore subject to lower levels of criminal responsibility.
Legal Studies How well does the Australian Legal System deal with the contemporary issue (drug use and the law) The Australian legal system was developed from the legal system of Britain originally, between 1855 and 1890 the British parliament granted a limited right to set up a local system of governments to each of the British colonies within Australia. This allowed each of the colonies the right to develop their own laws and legal systems to deal with its particular situation. There was a move towards creating a central legal system during the late 19th century, a referendum was held in each colony to approve the draft constitution. The Australian Constitution Act was passed as an Act of the British Government and took effect on January
I believe that the federal justice system is just and unbiased. The federal justice system has guidelines and rules to keep them from using power improperly and targeting groups of people based on their race. This is talked about in article “Is the Criminal Justice System Racist”. There are statistics given pertaining to the prison sentences given to African Americans, prosecution during a felony trial, and crime/prison rates.
The court structure in the United States is comprised of a dual court system. The dual court system consists of “one system of state and local courts and another system of federal courts” (Bohm & Haley, 2011, p. 274). Although the system has a separate court system for state and federal court, they do connect in the United States Supreme Court. Each court has various levels of jurisdiction to hear and make decisions over cases (Bohm & Haley, 2011).
The American Legal System The American legal system has been influenced by many historical rulers and laws. Three that have influenced the American legal system the most are Roman laws, moral laws and Hammurabi’s code in my opinion. One legal system that influenced the American legal system are Roman laws. I picked Roman law because it said that law has been defined as the “Art of social control”; a system of rules regulating the conduct of man.
I believe murders and other “brutal criminals” should not be executed instead of spending life in jail. From the flaws in the justice system, success rates of rehabilitation and the lack of mental illness being represented is a major issue that needs to be addressed. The Canadian Justice System has its challenges, but its flaws outshine the good it has done. I'm personally aware of a situation where an individual was convicted for 2nd degree murder. Only after 3 years were they able to get their murder charge reduced to an accessory, which was more appropriate when reviewing the case.
Ideally, being able to elect judges seems like a fair concept. Both parties present a field candidate and the voters decide which to choose; however, this system is flawed. Not only is it difficult for the people to obtain any real information about their candidates, there is also the issue of “…Texas justice being sold to the highest bidder.” As a result, many cases have been influenced because of these generous contributions to the candidates. Rather than electing judicial officials, Texas should adopt a system of having a governor, or the Senate, appoint its judges, then every few years, voters sustain the right to retain those judges if they so desire.
Specialized Courts Specialized courts are commonly known as the problem-solving courts that promote positive reinforcement, support behavior modification, decrease victimization, and reduce recidivism. Examples of specialized courts include drug court and mental health courts. A community might benefit from establishing a specialized court such as a drug court because it follows a comprehensive model that concentrates on reducing criminal actions through treatment and rehabilitation services with the focus being on substance abuse addiction and identifying the cause without jeopardizing public safety and due process (Specialized Courts, 2013).
This essay will briefly discuss the role of the jury and how it works, from the principle behind it, to the method with which members are selected, and to the powers available to jurors. Moreover, it will outline advantages and disadvantages of trial by jury, and it will point out a couple of ways which could ameliorate this type of trial. Trial by jury has been a part of the criminal justice system since the 12th century (Davies, 2015), it is considered an ancient right and a symbol of liberty (Hostettler, 2004). It creates no precedent and it can decide challenging cases equitably without making bad law, it also brings members of the public into the administration of justice and into an understanding of legal and human rights (Hostettler,
[5] Common law works in a different way, the judges rather than the Parliament make common law or ‘judge-made law’. Considering criminal and civil cases, the judges take decisions based on the stare decisis principle (Latin “to stand by things decided”, the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent [4]), deliver rulings and create precedents, thus applying the law to real life situations. Therefore, the value of the precedent is very high in the English Common Law system. The strengths of common law
Different judges will have different interpretation of cases; hence, they may bind a single case with various precedents making it more difficult to pass a judgment. In this type of situation even competent judges may find it complicated to decide on the ‘ratio decidendi’. Nevertheless, there are a lot of case laws and deciding which case law best appropriates to a case is not always an easy task, as it is time consuming and very stressful to find the most suitable precedent. Therefore, not only the doctrine of judicial precedent has the disadvantage of being complex, while the judges are discussing which case law to apply to a specific case, justice is at the same time being delayed.
In the article entitled ‘Determining the Ratio Decidendi of the Case’ by Arthur L. Goodhart, I underwent a roller coaster-like journey on exploring the science behind the nature of a precedent in English law. Goodhart started with the attempt to explain the full meaning of ratio decidendi in the simplest terms. He referred to Sir John Salmond’s definition in which I have interpreted ratio decidendi as the principle of law that is found in a court decision and possesses the authority to be binding. Ratio decidendi should be distinguished from a judicial decision, as the latter is a wider concept and contains the ratio decidendi, whereas the former is a principle that carries the force of law. In another reference, Professor John Chipman Gray
The criminal justice system is that subsystem of the national legal system which determines the circumstances in which and the procedure according to which individuals may be punished by the state for conduct that is defined as a crime. For the sake of convenience, a distinction is normally drawn between the substantive aspects of the criminal justice system and its procedural aspects. The study of criminal law generally focuses on substantive law; namely, the principles of law according to which criminal liability (guilt) is determined, whilst the law of criminal procedure, together with the law of evidence, focuses on the manner in which this is done, together with the way in which offenders and suspected offenders are to be treated by the