Law Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Law Journal - Essay Example A few of the abovementioned components are examined briefly below. Legislation is enacted by Parliament which contains two chambers – the House of Commons and the House of Lords. An Act of Parliament begins life as a bill, which is a proposed draft of an Act and passes through the various stages of the enactment process prior to becoming binding law. Delegated legislation as the name suggests is brought about in situations where the statute alone cannot provide for all the technicalities required. So it provides the broad framework whilst the details are filled in by the relevant minister by way of delegated legislation. These regulations when made in the approved manner are just as much law as the parent statute itself. (b) The English Legal System’s civil court structure consists of the European court of Justice, the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal, the Divisional Courts, the High Court, the County Court and the Magistrates Court. The system of Judicial Precedent in a nutshell would involve a court being bound by similar decisions made by courts of equal or higher status and is not merely a mechanical process of matching similarities and differences but involves the art of interpreting the principle derived from an earlier case. Decisions of the House of Lords bind all lower courts. After a protracted debate on whether or not House of Lord decisions binds future House of Lord’s cases the Practice Statement (Judicial Precedent) 1966 1 WLR 1234 established that though the doctrine of being bound had many commendable points â€Å"a too rigid adherence to precedent may lead to injustice in a particular case and also unduly restrict the proper development of the law†. However, the Lords depart from earlier decision only in rare circumstances. One such case is the case of British Railways Board Vs Herrington1 where the lords faced a number of earlier decisions wherein they had held that there was only a limited duty of care in neglig ence owed to children who trespassed onto property. Since perceptions of public policy have changed over the years their lordships felt able to ignore the earlier decisions and impose on British Railways a duty of care in keeping railway fences repaired. Strictly speaking the Court of Appeal is bound to follow all decisions of the House of Lords. There were some attempts by Lord Denning however to change this strict rule. He launched a two pronged attack by saying that (a) that if a House of Lords decision had been made per incuriam it could not be followed and (b) that if the reasoning for a rule had lapsed or seek to be of significance it need not be followed. These attempts were however not viewed favourably by the House of Lords and therefore the Court of Appeal is now bound to follow all House of Lords decisions. It may however choose between its own conflicting decisions. All courts that are lower in status than the Court of Appeal are bound by the doctrine of Judicial Precede nt in the normal way. Contract (a) An offer is a proposal by one person to another of certain terms of performance, which proposal is made with the intention that it be accepted by such other person. The promise of performance however is conditional upon a return promise or an act or forbearance being received in exchange for it for it to mature into a contract. An offer should be definite. Therefore a promise to pay a specified sum if a horse purchased were â€Å"