ОлейникТ.Л.
Learning the Law, 2005
1. THE LAW AND ITS IMPORTANCE 6
1.1 What is law? 6
1.2 Law and justice 7
1.3 Law and morality 8
2. DIFFERENT TYPES OF LAW8
2.1 International and national law 8
2.2 Public and private law 8
2.3 Distinctions between criminal cases and civil cases 10
CRIMINAL CASES 10
CIVIL CASES 11
INTRODUCTION — THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE 15
2. THE INVISIBLEPALACE. PART I 17
2.1 Parliament — the SupremeLaw-making Body in England 17
2.2 'Judge-made' Law — Common Law and Equity 17
Who is the ordinary reasonable man? Lord Justice Bowen, in 1903, famously described him as 'the man o 17
E THRONE ROOM OF BRITISH INVISIBLE 21
palace is the Britis 21
en in Parliament'. 22
Local Government22
any dispute abo 23
I. THE RULE OF LAW
1. THE LAW AND ITS IMPORTANCE5
1.1 WHAT IS LAW? 5
1.2 LAW AND JUSTICE 6
1.3 LAW AND MORALITY
2. DIFFERENT TYPES OF LAW
2.1 INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LAW
2.2 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LAW
2.3 DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN CRIMINAL CASES AND CIVIL CASES
1. THE LAW AND ITS IMPORTANCE
1.1 WHAT IS LAW?
'Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I've told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.'
W.H. Auden, extract from Law is Like Love.
Where law ends, tyranny begins.'
William Pitt, Prime Minister, 1801.
Human beings have always lived together under rules
of one kind or another. It does not matter where in the
world; it does not matter in what age, whether the society
in which they lived was a simple or a complex one
by our present-day standards — humans have always
as a matter of necessity lived by rules.
These rules are likely to be influenced by nature and the
natural environment of the society in which people live,
wherever that may be, and the simple natural instinct
everyone has for survival. They may be influenced by
religious or secular beliefs, and they will cater for the
ideas of right and wrong that have been developed over
time to suit the society in which they live.
Think about yourself. If you form a club or society to include
your friends, almost certainly the first move will be to choose a
leader and make up some rules. You may find that they do notall work, and as time goes by you will change and adapt themto suit your needs and any new ideas you may have,
but youwill not be able to manage without any rules at all. Even criminalswho plan a crime will work to a set of rules of their ownmaking, however unpleasant they and their crime may be.
*Every sport has to have its own set of rules.
Imagine what it would be like trying to play cricket
or football, tennis or netball without rules. Even the
simplest sport, such as running a race, must have
rules. If it had none at all, everyone would set off at
different times and in different directions, and stop
at different places!
*Sometimes new rules are introduced into a sport to
make it more enjoyable to play and watch: the 'offside'
rule in football and 'limited-overs' rule in oneday
cricket are examples of this. After a while people
forget about the changes and the reasons for
them, and the new rules become as much a part of
the game as the old ones.
If we think about our own family and school, past or present,
we will know that there are things that we have to do and
things we are not allowed to do. Some of these rules will be
very obvious and we would expect to find them in any family
or school. Some may apply only in our lives. They may be sensible,
or they may seem to us or to outsiders to be strange -
even foolish. We may well question these rules, but we will be
told that there is no point in doing so: this is how things have
always been and how they are — the 'Law is The Law'!
Very often these rules will be in force because your parents
and school are handing down to you a way of living
which has been tried and tested, and which has suited
them over many years. Whether they are sensible or silly,
useful or useless, serious or fun, you still live by them,
because it has become the custom to do so. Gradually,
over a period of time, these customs may change to adapt
to the new times, just like the rules of a sport.
In our country there are certain rules which are there to be obeyed by everyone
— by you, by your parents and family, by your teachers — by everyone
who is old enough to behave responsibly. As we shall see, many of these
rules have grown up out of custom — the customs of town and country, which
have developed over the centuries, and which have been adopted by the
judges sitting in their courts. Many more rules have been laid down for us all
by Parliament. If any of us breaks these rules we may be brought before a