Common law

Common Law is a term, which describes the main body of English unwritten law that evolved from the 12th century onward. The name comes from the idea that English medieval law, as administered by the courts, reflected the «common» customs of the kingdom. This system of law prevails in Great Britain and in those countries, such as Canada and the United States, that were originally colonized by English settlers.

The common law is based on the principle of deciding cases by reference to previous judicial decisions, rather than to written statutes drafted by legislative bodies. Common law can be contrasted to the civil-law system, based on ancient Roman law, found in continental Europe and elsewhere.

As the number of judicial decisions accumulate on a particular kind of dispute, general rules or precedents emerge and become guidelines for judges deciding similar cases in the future. Subsequent cases, however, may reveal new and different facts and considerations, such as changing social or technological conditions. A common-law judge is then free to depart from precedent and establish a new rule of decision, which sets a new precedent as it is accepted and used by different judges in other cases. In this manner, common law retains a dynamic for change.

In all common-law systems, a pyramidal structure of courts exists to define the law. At the base of the pyramid are trial courts, composed of a single judge and a jury selected from local citizens. The judge controls the conduct of the court and the admission of evidence. After both sides have presented their evidence, the judge instructs the jury on the appropriate legal principles to be applied in determining the case. The jury then weighs the facts and applies the law, as stated by the judge, in order to reach a verdict or judgment.

Above the trial courts, layers of appellate courts, composed entirely of judges, exist to adjudicate disputes. These disputes centre on whether or not the trialjudge applied the correct principles oflaw (The jury’s determination offact and its ultimate verdict orjudgment are not subject to appellate review, however, in order to preserve the independence of the jury as a check on judicial power.) The interpretations of law made by appellate courts form the precedents that govern future cases. Furthermore, the importance of a precedent for any given court depends on that court’s position in the pyramidal structure; for example, a precedent set by an appellate court has greater force in trial courts than in other appellate courts.

Загальне право

Загальне право це термін, який описує основну частину англійського неписаного права, яке розвинулося з 12-го століття і далі. Назва походить з ідеї, що середньовічна англійське право, яке було у веденні судів, відбиває «загальний» звичай королівства. Ця система права переважає у Великобританії і в тих країнах, таких як Канада і США, які були спочатку колонізовані англійськими поселенцями.

Загальне право грунтується на принципі вирішенні справ з посиланням на попередні судові рішення, а не на законодавчих актах розроблений законодавчими органами. Загальне право може бути протиставлене по відношенню до цивільно-правової системи, заснованої на стародавньому римському праві, основаному в континентальній Європі та в інших місцях.

У міру збільшення числа судових рішень, що накопичуються на певний вид спору, виникають загальні правила або прецеденти і стають керівними принципами для судді, які приймають рішення аналогічних справ у майбутньому. Наступні випадках, однак, може виявити нові і різні факти і міркування, такі як зміна соціальних або технологічних умов. Суддя загального права тоді може вільно відходити від прецеденту і створити нове правило рішення, яке створює прецедент, яке приймається і використовується різними суддями в інших випадках. Таким чином, загальне право зберігає динамічні зміни.

У всіх системах загального права, пірамідальна структура судів існує для визначення закону. В основі піраміди знаходяться суди першої інстанції, складається з одного судді і журі, що обрано з місцевих жителів. Суддя контролює поведінку суду і прийняття доказів. Після того як обидві сторони представили свої докази, суддя інструктує присяжних відповідно до правових принципів, які повинні застосовуватися при визначеному випадку. Після цього журі зважує факти і застосовує закон, як заявив суддя, для того, щоб винести вердикт або судження.

Над першої інстанції, шари апеляційних судів, що складається виключно з суддів, існує для вирішення суперечок. Ці суперечки центру від наявності або відсутності trialjudge застосовуються правильні of law принципи (визначення журі of fact і його кінцевої or judgment вирок не підлягає оскарженню, проте, для того, щоб зберегти незалежність журі в якості перевірки на судову владу.) інтерпретації законів, прийнятих апеляційні суди утворюють прецеденти, які регулюють майбутніх справ. Крім того, важливість прецеденту для будь даного суду залежить від позиції цього суду в пірамідальної структурі, наприклад, прецедент, створений апеляційний суд має велику силу в судах першої інстанції, ніж в інших апеляційних судів.

CIVIL LAW (FAMILY, CONTRACT, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY)

The civil law covers cases related to family, property, contracts and non-contractual wrongful acts suffered by one person at the hands of another (torts). Family law includes the laws governing marriage, divorce and the welfare of children; the law of property governs ownership, disposal of property on death, etc.; the law of contract regulates, for instance, the sale of goods, loans, partnerships, insurance and guarantees.

Civil proceedings are started by the aggrieved person. As a private matter, they can usually be abandoned or ended by settlement between the parties at any time. In many cases, parties to a dispute settle their differences through their lawyers before the trial stage is reached.

Family law is divided into public and private law cases. Public law cases involve local government and other public authorities and include matters such as care of children. Private law cases involve divorce proceedings, etc. Most court cases involving children concern private disputes between parents — often after separation.

Torts include wrongs such as negligence, defamation, etc. if these legal rights have been infringed, a plaintiff can sue for compensation. One of the most important tort actions is that for negligence, when a person fails to live up to an expected standard of care and someone is injured as a result. This can cover physical damage or financial loss.

A contract is an agreement between two or more parties, which is enforceable by law. A valid business contract, for instance, must involve an offer to supply goods or services, consideration (the price to be paid) and acceptance by the purchaser. The offer may be revoked at any time before acceptance but it must be communicated to the purchaser. Accep­tance of an offer must mean agreement entirely with the terms of the offer, and the terms must be sufficiently detailed. In addition, the object of the contract must not be illegal; it is against the law for two people to make a deal between themselves if this involves a criminal offence.

An example of a contract is the purchase of goods in a shop. If the goods purchased turn out to be shoddy, the purchaser can sue the seller in the civil courts usually for damages. Conversely, if the ownership of goods passes to the purchaser and they are not paid for, the seller can sue for the price of goods. Similarly, an employer is bound to pay an employee for work done; if he or she fails to do so, a breach of contract action can take place.

Intellectual property laws reward the creators of original works by preventing others from copying, performing, or distributing those works without permission. They also provide incentives for people to produce scientific and creative works that benefit society at large. Some types of intellectual property are automatically protected by law from the moment of their creation. Other types require a specific grant of rights from a government agency before they may be protected by law. Nearly all nations have laws protecting intellectual property. The principal types of intellectual property are patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Patent law protects inventions that demonstrate tech­nological progress. Copyright law protects a variety of literary and artistic works, including paintings, sculpture, prose, poetry, plays, musical compositions, dances, photographs, motion pictures, radio and television programs, sound recordings, and computer software programs. Trademark law protects words and symbols that serve to id­entify different brands of goods and services in the marketplace.

Intellectual property differs from other forms of property because it is intangible, a product of the human imagination. Because intel­lectual property is intangible, many people may use it simultaneously without conflict. For example, only one person can drive a car at a time, but if an author publishes a book, many people can read the work at the same time. Intellectual property is also much easier to copy than it is to create. It may take many months of work to write a novel or computer program, but with a photocopy machine or a computer others could copy the work in a matter of seconds. Without intellectual property laws, it would be easy to duplicate original works and sell them for very low prices, leaving the original creators without any chance to secure economic rewards for their efforts. The legal system avoids this problem by making it against the law to reproduce various forms of intellectual property without the permission of the creator.