TAYLORS LECTURES SOURCES OF LAW

INTRODUCTION TO SOURCES OF LAW SOURCES OF LAW IN THE UK STATUTE DELEGATED LEGISLATION CASE LAW EUROPEAN (EU) LAW INTERNATIONAL TREATY CUSTOM EQUITY

Statute A statute is a law that is passed by Parliament. Parliament can make new laws or revoke old laws. The courts will then apply the law. There are three types of bills: Public Bills Private Members Bills Private Bills

Process for Passing Act of Parliament The Bill stage Report stage First Reading Third reading Second Reading House of Lords Committee stage Royal Assent

Delegated Legislation Statutory Instruments – Prepared by government departments By-laws – made by public bodies, local authorities and national bodies, such as relating to conduct on the railways and in town centres Orders in Council – made by the Government in times of national emergency

Case Law (or “Common Law”) Effectively Judge-made law, by applying the law in a way that follows decisions in previous cases. These decisions may then bind lower courts. Recent example: Case of ‘M’ relating to the courts not having to be consulted for medical practitioners and family members to agree to withhold life sustaining treatment to terminally ill patient.

EU Law Produces new law e.g. GDPR relating to Data Protection Courts must interpret and apply UK law in a way that avoids conflict with EU law Enforceable through application to the European Court of Justice

) International Treaty There are over 14,000 treaties that the UK is party to. These can be accessed via the Government Website UK Treaties Online (UKTO) Signatories agree to be bound by the terms of the treaty. The subject matters may be wide, for example the Kyoto Agreement on climate

Custom This was based on traditional local practice for interpreting laws. As steps are made for consistency nationwide, this is increasingly less relevant.

Equity This is a specific branch on law which mostly applies to property law. The principle, though, is of ensuring fairness, when the law may not directly specify that, so it may arise in other areas. An example might be somebody being stopped from taking an action that harms somebody else when they have promised not to do so and the other person has acted in reliance upon that.

EU and UN Declaration of Human Rights EU DECLARATION UN DECLARATION Binding on EU countries. Law should be applied in accord with this and this can be enforced through the European Court of Human Rights. It may affect non-EU countries seeking to operate in the EU, e.g. Google Enforced by the UN as an international law