law questions help

[hatty]

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hi all

im having some troubles with really basic law questions, please help me out

firstly, what is the difference between a legislation, statute, act delegated/subordinate legislation and what are their links to each other? and also, what is case law? and which of the above categories does it fit in?

i know its some pretty stupid questions but all this shit is confusing me.

and does anyone have information on briefing a case or something? ive searched a few places on the net without much sucess

thanks all

[santaslayer]

Just briefly,

1. Legislation is just another name for statutes. These are the Acts of parliament. Parliament, as a collective group create these certain Acts and are 'written' law.

2. Case law is NOT written down. It is judge made law. These laws are made because cases that come b4 the court are usually very different from one another. This is what leads to precedents. That is, lower court judges must abide by the same legal decisions of higher court judges if the case is the same. This ensures consistency.
That is one part of balancing the powers of the state (country). Legislation may override judge made law-it always prevails. This usually happens with sensitive cases which concern policy.

3. Delegated legislation is when certain governmental bodies (or the like) are vested with powers to do certain things.... like create laws and rules...eg. RTA...These bodies have full governmental support concerning the creation of rules and stuff...
Parliament cannot always make laws in every aspect of day to day life...because they do not have the expertise and time to do so....thats why such powers are delegated...

[hatty]

thanks alot

can you briefly explain to me what common law is, i think i have a good idea, but would like clarification from someone who knows their shit.
thanks

[MoonlightSonata]

Originally Posted by hatty

thanks alot

can you briefly explain to me what common law is, i think i have a good idea, but would like clarification from someone who knows their shit.
thanks

'Common law' can mean 3 different things:

Firstly it can be used to refer to non-statutory law (primarily judge made law) as opposed to legislation.

Secondly it can be used in contrast with civil law systems (Civil law is based on Roman law, prominent among European countries... and also Japan I believe. The main difference nowdays is virtually everything in Civil law is codified - statutes are the primary source of law).

Thirdly, it is a division/area of law, in contrast to say, equity.

[hatty]

alright cool

thanks all