4. Common Law

In very early times there was no system of justice that applied for the whole country. It wasn’t ruled by a single monarch. But William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 and grasped the need to reinforce the system of sentral or national government. William made laws which had to be obeyed and could be enforced throughout the land that he could exercise real power and control over all his subjects. 

For centuries English monarchs traveled through the country with their courts. Almost all the main courts of England can be traced back to William’s Curia Regins. The king sat on the bench and heared casesi n his own court. This is why the most important courts became to known as the Court of King’s Bench.

King Henry II understood that a single system of justice for the whole land under the control of the king gave him great power. He studied how best to achieve this. Henry set the foundations of professional judges, 5 of them decided cases in London and other were sent out on circuits to travel different parts of the country. When the did so they had to apply the laws that had been made by jadges at Westminister. In this way many local laws were replaced by new national laws. These national laws were common to all. And now these laws are known as the common law.

The common law, originally based upon the common customs of the country and gradually developed over the centuries, has become one of the most prized features of our national way of life.

5. The British Constitution

The way in which country is governed, and power is organised and distributed, is called its constitution. In many countries it is written, the oldest example of it is the Constitution of the USA (1787) and the most recent are Constitution of South Africa (1992) and Ukraine (1998).

In the UK there is no written constitution, but it has been developing for over 700 years, and it continues to do so. It is in part founded upon statue and case law, but mainly upon custom and convention. The main idea of the constitution is that no one person should be given so much power that he or she can become a dictator or tyrant. Power is separated and distributed in such a way that this cannot happen. This principle is called the separation of powers.

The British Constitution is therefore unwritten and it is flexible. It is open to change by Act of Parliament to meet tthe gradually changing needs of the nation.

6. The Branches of Power (the Legislature, the Executive, the Judiciary)

In the UK power is divided so as to ensure that it never becomes dangerously concentrated in the hands of one person, or even a small group of people. At one time, power and responsibility were said to recside in the Three Estates of the Realm: the Crown , the Clergy and the Laity.

In this separation of powers the idea is to separate and therefore limit the powers of government by splitting government functions into the legislature, executive and judiciary.

The Legislature means the law makers. In UK the chief law maker is «The Queen in Parliament. Members of Parliament swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen on taking offece, and all acts of Parliament must recieve the Royal Assent. The two Houses of Parliament have the executive power.

The Executive is the power which can take the initiative for change: it can take action. The executive in the Local Authotity is formed by the political party which wins the local elections. The national executive (Government) is formed from the winning political party at the nationwide General Elections. (These are MPs). The leader of the winning party becomes Prime Minister. He chooses other members of his party to be in charge for different aspects of government. The Government makes day-to-day decisions about the public life of the country.

National and Local executive are voted in (or out) by the people.

And finally, the Judiciary (judges). They must decide what the law is and prevent an abuse of power. The Prime minister and his Ministers, who are the part of executive, have an enormous power, and it is not unusual for Ministers to be taken to Court and from time to time the courts decide that the Home Secretary has exceeded his powers.