Different Sources of English Law - Essay Example

North Ireland operates a system that is similar to that of England, but which is autonomous. Legislation as a main source of English law entails the formulation of laws by the parliament, commonly known as the primary legislation. In this case, Bills are developed and debated upon in the house of commons. While they are approved, they are passed on to the house of Lords for approval and later to the Queen for royal assent, after which they become fully fledged laws of the UK (Hughes, 2002 p18).

There is secondary legislation that entails the formulation of laws by other bodies, mandated by the parliament to make such laws. This includes bodies such as government ministries and the local authorities (Dicey, 1993 p51). Legislations by parliament do vary, based on the geographical locations, companies, or persons. The ordinary laws that applies universally to all people in all regions are called the public general acts. There is however a change in the traditional ways of legislation, with some modern legislations being undertaken by the government ministries, even without being approved first by the parliament (Barnett, 2008 p17).

This is a form of delegated or secondary legislations, which has some reasoning behind. . igned for specialized areas with unique professional needs that the parliamentarians cannot meet, the opportunity is provided for, under delegated legislation, where the expert opinions and skills are crafted and incorporate into laws (Barnett, 2008 p23). Further, delegated legislation allows for flexibility in law making, in that it becomes possible to address emergent issues that need legal backing through such statutory instruments or orders provided by the ministries for enactment.

This serves to ensure that the law making process can adopted to urgent need of a situation, which would otherwise not be possible if the issue had to go through the normal parliamentary legislation (Hughes, 2002 p32). Thus, legislation as a source of law entails the rigid and the flexible avenues. This serves to ensure that the nature of both complex and simple issues are accorded the right avenues, with complex legislations being handled by the parliament and the simple flexible legislations being undertaken by such delegated bodies as the ministries.

The legislations done by the local authorities are called by-laws. The doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty provides for the amendment of common laws by acts of parliament, while the laws formed through parliamentary legislation cannot be changed by the statutes of common laws (Slapper, 2001 p133). Case law is another source of English laws. This refers to the reference made to judicial decisions that were made in the past, considering the ruling that was given by the then judges, in the case a legal suit of the similar nature arises in present day (Hughes, 2002 p55).

A statement that was made by a judge during a certain ruling can become legally binding, and thus affect the subsequent judgments made, due to the requirement to observe