RECONSIDERING THE COMMON LAW SYSTEM AS A LAW FROM LONG-STANDING CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS: ENGLISH LAW

Year 2020, Volume: 10 Issue: 1, 1 - 16, 20.06.2020

Mustafa Çakır

Abstract

Common Law is a legal system based on customs and judicial decisions rather
than enacted statutes. There is, however, one discrepancy between American law and
English law, both of which are adopters of the common law. The point is that judges
in the United Kingdom (Hereinafter UK) cannot merely declare an act or a statute
established by the sovereign parliament as unconstitutional because there is no
constitution in English law.
The role of judges in the UK is to interpret bills introduced by the parliament
since all the situations and facts can not be covered by the bills in question.
Interpreting laws and giving sense to the work of the parliament is very important in
English law because the acts is like wider theories that may not always fit into a
practice.
In this study, the origin of common law and its raison d’être, English court
system, hierarchy of law and the statutory interpretation will be analysed.

Keywords

Common Law, Judicial decisions

References

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