Sources of Law in England and Wales: An Introduction

The aim of LawScape is to digest legal news in an accessible way. I believe it can be even more useful than that and digest the law more generally in an accessible way. That does not mean that it will now start discussing obscure points of law. Instead, it will explore interesting areas of law alongside legal news as normal.

I feel that the best place to start is to explore in a little more detail the main sources of the law in England and Wales. Since (almost) all law comes from these sources it is very helpful to understand them.

In this piece I shall identify and briefly describe the main sources of law. A more detailed article on each will follow in the coming weeks. The collection of articles will be accessible from the menu bar.

The main sources of law in England and Wales are:

-           legislation (statute law);

-           common law (judge made law); and

-           international law (in particular the law of the European Union)

Legislation

Legislation is divided into two categories: primary legislation and secondary (or delegated or subordinate) legislation.

Acts of Parliament (or statutes) are primary legislation. They are made by Parliament and are the supreme type of law. Parliament can make or unmake any law it wants without restriction.

Secondary legislation takes many forms. It is made by individuals and bodies such as the government and local authorities. An Act of Parliament grants power to an individual or body to make secondary legislation (in these circumstances the Act is known as a ‘parent’ or ‘enabling’ Act).

Most secondary legislation is in the form a Statutory Instrument. They are often called Orders, Regulations and Rules. Other secondary legislation includes Orders in Council and Byelaws.

Common Law

Common law is made by judges. Not all law is written in legislation. Common law is the body of law made up of judicial decisions. Judges can also make law when they interpret what legislation actually means. By way of an example, most of the law concerning contracts can be found in the decisions of previous cases (common law), not in legislation.

International Law

International law is the body of law made by organisations around the world that England and Wales (and normally the UK as a whole) agrees to be bound by. In the UK the main source of international law is European Union law. Another significant source of international law is the Council of Europe, which produced the European Convention on Human Rights.

International law does not have effect in the UK until is it incorporated into our law by legislation.

Conclusion

Collectively, these three sources make up almost all of our law. They often interact with each other and are often not clear. When presented with a problem, the courts must determine what law is applicable and then apply it to the facts to come to a decision.

In the coming weeks each source will be discussed in more detail.