Legal Systems Employed within the European Union - Research Paper Example

Legal systems employed within the European Union Legal system is one of the main entities of any civilized society or a country. It helps the administration in interpreting and enforcing the laws. Legal systems in different countries are different because of the political, cultural and religious differences. Major legal systems in different countries are consisting of civil law, common law and religious law. As the name indicates the religious law is prominent in countries where religion is prominent. (Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, Bangladesh etc)All the laws will be formulated and interpreted based on the religious principles in these countries where religious law is implemented. On the other hand common law is observed in countries like India, UK, Australia etc. The legislature will make the laws in these countries which will be interpreted by the courts/judiciary. Civil law is used in majority of the countries like Japan, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, France etc. Civil law system has its roots in Roman Empire and it has some influence from the religious laws as well. Civil law is strictly works in accordance with the constitution. Majority of the European Union (EU) countries like France, Germany, Spain and Netherlands have adopted civil law as the core of their legal system while UK has adopted common law. The European Union (EU) which was established in 1993 and consisting of 27 member states is mainly work for the political and economical development of Europe. It has developed and established a single market system and a single currency system (Euro) in order to unify the political and economical activities and procedures in this region. “The EU legal system worked steadily to expand the supranational character of the EU, to push the integration project much further than the member states” (Sweet, 2004, p.15) (Supra nationalism is a method of handing over the power of decision making authority to an authority of a multinational political community) This paper briefly analyses and compares legal systems in UK, France, Germany, Spain and Netherlands. Legal system in UK As stated above, United Kingdom has adopted common law system in their legal system. The United Kingdom is consisting of four different countries like England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, each have its own legal system. “There is no written constitution. The Queen is the Head of State, although in practice the supreme authority of the Crown is carried by the government of the day. The legislature is a bicameral Parliament. The House of Commons consists of 659 Members of Parliament (MPs), elected by simple majority vote in a general election every five years” (Carter, 2000) UK is one of the rarest democratic countries in the world which don’t have a written constitution. Also, unlike other democratic countries, UK still considers the monarch as the head of the nation though the power associated with the monarch is limited. “The institution, procedures, and personnel which make up the legal system of England and Wales are at first sight only a very loosely connected set of subjects” (Malleson, 2007, p.1) It is difficult for an external observer to understand the legal system in England because of the lack of coherence and unification in it. The judges in the court interpret the laws based on their common sense and the factual basis of the case because of the absence of a written constitution in UK which forces the external observers to think that English legal system is not suitable for a democratic country. Moreover, since the 1980s attention has begun to turn to the importance of informal legal system which includes wide variety methods of dispute resolution including conciliation, mediation, arbitration and community courts. (Cownie et al, n.d, p.18) The above tactics in English legal system has made it a loosely bounded one for the external analysts. But in practice, it is as good as the legal systems in any other EU countries. “The constitutional law of the UK is regarded as consisting of statute law on the one hand and case law on the other, whereby judicial precedent is applied in the courts by judges interpreting statute law” (Carter, 2000). The UK legal system consists of both the elements of statute law and the case law. Statute law is formulated by the legislature system and the judges in the court interpret such laws based on the constitution. Statute laws have the primary responsibility in controlling the legal system in UK. Most of the statute laws are the rules of the society which has been legalized by the legislature. Before converting the social laws into a statute law the government or the legislature analyses different aspects of the law vigorously before giving the legal status to it. Case law on the other hand is interpreted and implemented by the judicial system based on the nature of individual cases. The judges will be responsible for formulating case laws strictly in accordance with the constitutional rights provided to the citizens. Case law is in common law system is also formulated or interpreted based on the similar previous cases decided by the courts. Cases are classified into two broad categories as per the UK legal system; criminal cases and civil cases. Civil cases are noncriminal law violations related to property rights, divorce, contract violations, copy right violations etc. A criminal case on the other hand is a case related to an individual for an act that has been labeled as a crime by the state legislature. Magistrate court is the lowest entity of the criminal justice system in United Kingdom which deals with only the minor criminal cases. Serious criminal cases will be heard only in the crown courts. If the magistrate courts decide that the reported case was a serious crime, then they will refer it to the crown court. On the other hand, civil cases initially heard by the county court or the high court based on the seriousness of the case. “The House of Lords is the supreme court of appeal. Its judicial functions are quite separate from its legislative work, and cases are heard by up to 13 senior judges known as Law Lords” (Carter, 2000). The Supreme Court has the highest power as far as the UK criminal justice system is concerned. They will give the final verdict to a case irrespective of whether it is civil or criminal. Legal system in France Unlike UK, civil law is followed in France. “The French legal system abides by the principal of unity of the civil and criminal justice system, which means that the same court can hear both criminal and civil cases” (Borricand, n.d) French legal system can be classified mainly into four categories; civil law, criminal law, constitutional and administrative law. Though criminal justice system in France has been divided in to the above categories, there are no separate courts in France to hear different cases based on the violations of different laws. Same court can hear all the cases irrespective of which category it may belongs to. Judicial systems in France has been divided into two categories; administrative and judiciary. Administrative system is mainly concentrated on settling the disputes between the government and the public. “Today there are 55 codes (compilations of laws, decrees, and circulars) governing all branches of French law. Amongst these are the Code Civil, the Code Pénal, and the Code Fiscal” (Understanding French Law, n.d) As in the case of UK, supreme court is the highest authority in the interpretation of laws. All decisions taken by the lower court can be questioned in the Supreme Court if the public have any doubts or concerns about the verdict given by the lower courts. Legal system in Germany In Germany, though they are following the civil law system the structure of the criminal justice system is different from that of France. Before the taking the decision about a trial, the German criminal prosecution authorities will conduct an investigation to decide up on the validity and merits of the case. If they are convinced, they will direct the case to the suitable court. The Judge will decide whether any trial is required or not. This procedure is sharp in contrast with the criminal justice systems in other EU countries, in which the judge have little knowledge about the case till it is brought in his bench for trial. As in other EU countries, the accused is considered as innocent till the crime or the violation of law has been established. The German legal system demands the speedy trail of the cases which enable them settle the issues quickly compared to other European Union countries. “In minor cases there may be only a single judge presiding. Or, if the charges are severe and the accused faces heavy penalties, there may be five persons hearing the case; three professional judges and two lay judges” (Emerson, 2009) The German Supreme Court is known as the Federal Constitutional Court which has the highest authority in defining and implementing law in Germany. In Germany, law has been undergoing constant changes in order to make it suitable for the requirement of the contemporary society. All the aspects of human life are controlled by law in Germany and hence the law reforms are a must in German society. “The body of federal laws in Germany now encompasses approximately 1,900 acts and 3,000 statutory instruments. Laws are passed by the Bundestag, and decrees on the basis of laws are enacted by the Federal government. In Germany, the administration of justice is divided into five branches: ordinary, labor, administrative, social and financial courts” (The legal system, n.d) Ordinary courts mainly deal with civil (property related issues, family problems, sale or lease problems etc) and criminal matters while labor courts handle disputes from the employment sector. Germany has a well defined work constitution which helps them to settle the employer- employee issues smoothly compared to other EU countries. Administrative courts mainly deals with the issues in administrative sector while social and financial courts settle the issues in social security area and finance related disputes. Most of these courts have different levels also which help the German legal system in settling the issues rapidly. Legal system in Netherlands The legal system court system in Netherlands can be classified into three categories; lower court, higher court and the Supreme Court. The cases will be brough to the notice of the lower courts initially. If the any of the parties either the plaintiff or the culprit are not satisfied with the verdict given by the lower court they can go to the higher court and ultimately to the Supreme Court. Like all the other EU countries Supreme Court in Netherlands holds the highest authority as far as legal system in concerned. Netherlands consist of 19 districts, each having their own district court. Each district court has lot of other subdivisions also. “There are 61 of these in total. The District Court is made up of a maximum of five sectors. These always include the administrative sector, civil sector, criminal sector and sub-district sector. Family and juvenile cases are often put into a separate sector, as is sometimes the case with the administration of the law concerning aliens. (The court system in The Netherlands, 2005) In most of the cases the disputes are brought to the lower court at first which may usually consist of only a single judge. If the verdict is questioned by either of the parties, then the district court may decide whether to appoint a division bench or not. The division bench normally consists of three judges. Once the verdict given by the division bench is also not satisfactory, the case will be brought to the notice of the Supreme Court which is located in Hague. The Supreme Court will explore the verdicts given by the lower courts and then decide whether to upheld reject or modify the verdicts. Legal system in Spain Spain has adopted civil law system in their legal practices. It is different in many aspects of the other legal systems we have discussed so far. Compared to tier legal systems discussed Spanish legal system is too slow and inefficient. Spanish judges and lawyers quiet often catch the heading s of the news papers because of their partiality and bias in ensuring the justice to the public. Personal interests and corruptions are made the Spanish legal system malicious. Moreover filing and conducting a case (litigation) is an expensive procedure in Spain which prevented public from seeking justices from the courts. Spanish legal system consists of courts and tribunals consisting of Judges and Magistrates who ensures justice to the public on behalf of the king. The monarch is the constitutional head and commander in chief of the Spanish armed forces. Unlike the monarch in UK, the Spanish monarch has more power and role in the decision making and administrative sector. The final word comes from the monarch. In fact the King appoints the president and ministers of Spain and plays a vital role in the formation of Spanish government. The King can appoint anybody as the president and the ministers as per the Spanish constitution; though in most of the cases the King invites only the leader of the party who got majority in the elections. The King is also responsible for appointing the president and other members of the Spanish Supreme Court. Thus the King holds the upper hand in every aspect of the Spanish legal system. In fact Spain is one of the rarest countries in the world which have still the monarch as the supreme authority of the nation. The Spanish legal system or laws can be classifies as Organic Law (which specify the type of statute), Ordinary Laws, Decree-Law (provisional legislative decisions that Government may issue for extraordinary and urgent matters), Legislative Decree (dispositions of the Government containing delegated legislation) and Regulation laws (legislation of a lower status) (Cabrero, 2002) Comparison of legal systems in EU countries Even though, only UK follows the common law legal system and all the other countries discussed above follow civil law legal system, the functioning of these legal systems are entirely different in these countries. Spain seems to be the weakest link while Germany enjoys a strong legal system as far as the legal systems in EU countries are concerned. On the other hand, though for an outsider the UK legal system may appear as loosely bounded, in practice it is far better than some of the other EU countries. “Britain is a common law country in which the system of justice depends heavily on custom and precedent. By contrast, France is a civil law country where the legal system is based entirely on a body of written law” (Understanding French Law, n.d) The judge has more role in French legal system than the British legal system. Conclusions European Union is trying to integrate Europe as a whole by implementing common political and economical policies. They have already implemented a common currency, Euro for the use in EC countries. The next step is to implement a unified legal system in Europe. But because of the political differences in EC countries, this objective seems to be a difficult one. Most of the EC countries follow civil law legal system with UK as an exception which follows common law legal system. In most of these countries the supreme authority is the Supreme Court as far as the legal systems are concerned. Because of the political and social differences, the legal systems in EC countries though seem to be unique on paper, but functions differently in practice. References 1. Carter Sarah, (2000), Features - A Guide to the UK Legal System, Retrieved on June 20, 2009 from http://www.llrx.com/features/uk.htm 2. Understanding French Law, (n.d), Retrieved on June 20, 2009 from http://www.howtobooks.co.uk/abroad/france/law.asp 3. Borricand Jacques, (n.d), “World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems” Retrieved on June 20, 2009 from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/wfbcjfra.txt 4. Cabrero Olga, (2002), Features - A Guide to the Spanish Legal System, Retrieved on June 20, 2009 from http://www.llrx.com/features/spain.htm 5. Emerson Chuck, (2009), The German Legal System, Retrieved on June 20, 2009 from http://www.howtogermany.com/pages/legal.html 6. The court system in The Netherlands, (2005), Retrieved on June 20, 2009 from http://www.lassche.nl/en/judicial.html 7. The legal system, (n.d), Retrieved on June 20, 2009 from http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/political-system/content/background/the-legal-system.html?type=1 8. Sweet Alec Stone, (2004), The Judicial Construction of Europe Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; illustrated edition, http://www.amazon.com/Judicial-Construction-Europe-Stone-Sweet/dp/019927553X# 9. Cownie Fiona, Bradney Anthony & Burton Mandy,(n.d) English legal system in context, Published by Oxford University Press,  Fourth edition http://books.google.com/books?id=gs-HvA2DO60C&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=books+on+legal+system+in+England&source=bl&ots=dsD5qtyGu6&sig=Y1k8OlZpIKg8yzREvQjjgDSWY68&hl=en&ei=Bgs9StCINZCTkAXVzZmmDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 10. Malleson Kate, (2007),The Legal System, Publisher: Oxford University Press; Third Edition (Mar 3 2007) http://www.amazon.ca/Legal-System-Kate-Malleson/dp/0199212694 Read More