Development of English Law - Essay Example

Development of English Law Throughout history English law has been altered by major social, cultural and economic events. The law is not static: it changes as time passes and as required; it could even be said to be a living tree. These events and changes have made Britain the country it is today. It can be easily argued that the English common law—a law that adapts—is largely responsible for the free and prosperous character of Britain today. In this essay, three historic changes will be examined and their affect on English law will be considered. Abolishment of Slavery Slavery was very much a part of British culture and society in the 17th century. In the seventeenth century, England witnessed some modifications in the unfree labour where unfree labour was measured as a universal legal shape of consensual manual labour. Labour agreements were restricted by various punishments in the English law which if violated were followed by imprisonment. Masters held the right to imprison their workers until they were willing to complete the service contract (indentured servitude) or return to their employers for the time period they had agreed upon (slavery). These agreements initiated the major disparities between indentured servitude and slavery on the basis of two things: contractual agreement and time period (Murrin, 121). It was the English law that was imitated by the early American colonies and applied restrictions on departure not only to servants and apprentices but also to labourers and artificers. In the seventeenth century, English and American law acknowledged the significance of unfree labour and declared free labour as a self conscious set of legal and social practices, therefore the concept of unfree labour was alleviated. Critics claim the English law to be responsible for initiating unfree labour since it embedded concepts about liberty, labour, religious church teachings, gender specificity and observations of other European New World colonies, into the New World. Authors believe that Europe followed the roots of enslavement of Africans for practical reasons, and adapt the initial origins of slavery in Europe (Miller, 99). However, it was the abolishment of slavery in 1833 in the British commonwealth that stands out as a truly stunning change (Murrin, 98). The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 transformed Britain and its colonies. It laid the groundwork for human rights and human dignity. People could no longer be treated as property. It could be said that this act also tolled the death knell for the British Empire. It was impossible to keep unchained foreign people within the Kings sphere (Johnson, 34). This law also encouraged American abolitionists to pursue that agenda more fervently and led to the America civil war. DNA Testing One of the most radical transformations in evidence collection in recent years in the criminal justice system is the use of DNA. Considered by some to be a silver bullet, conclusively proving guilt, DNA’s significance can be hard to defend against and may create an insurmountable burden for an innocent defendant. It is documented that there is a high level of error in laboratories, and it is possible for DNA samples to be switched. An accident like this combined with circumstantial evidence would almost certainly result in a guilty verdict. Likewise, sophisticated criminals have been known to plant false DNA evidence at the crime scene in order to shift attention away from themselves and away from others. The rise of this new technology has dramatically affected English law and continues to push into unknown territory. In some countries DNA is considered peoples private property and is inviolable. The UK has a different view of things: the Human Tissue Act of 2004 prohibits private individuals from secretly collecting biological samples for DNA analysis, but excludes medical and criminal investigations from the offence. So it is clear that different countries have different ways of looking at this complicated and controversial issue. Generally, this is a very useful technology, but it must be used carefully and scrutinized, not just done automatically. A related new technology is DNA databases. Once again, this controversy is at present unresolved. It will begin to become resolved as the next generation of forensics specialist come into their own. DNA databases are collections of government database that can be used by law enforcement agencies to find suspects. The world’s first such database was established by the United Kingdom in April 1995. In the US, the FBI has organized the CODIS database. The British have one of the most advanced and rigorously used databases. Anyone arrested on suspicion of a crime must submit a DNA sample, which is than permanently saved in the database. Even if you didn’t commit the crime or were acquitted, the government will keep your DNA sample. Other countries fall on different parts of this spectrum, more lenient or less lenient. Portugal is somewhat extreme as they have plans to introduce a DNA database of its entire population! (Boivida ) The arguments on both sides can be powerful. In December 2008, “the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, said ‘blanket and indiscriminate’ lifetime retention of DNA samples from people suspected but not convicted of offences ‘failed to strike a fair balance between the competing public and private interests’” (CBC News). Civil liberties groups in the UK were very happy with this news. They believe that a person’s right to privacy is violated when a government essentially confiscates their biological data. To them it is not worth it that more criminals might be caught using this method—the cost in personal privacy and dignity is just too high. But there are powerful proponents of the idea too. Last year a high profile British judge set off a lot of controversy when he said everyone in the UK should be forced to provide a DNA sample to the government for law enforcement purposes. In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Lord Justice Stephen Sedley said the current database of nearly four million samples — currently the worlds largest — is insufficient, and that ethnic minorities are disproportionately included. "We have a situation where if you happen to have been in the hands of the police, then your DNA is on permanent record. If you havent, it isnt. … Thats broadly the picture," Sedley said. "It also means that a great many people who are walking the streets and whose DNA would show them guilty of crimes, go free" (CBC News). Where Britain will go in this emotional debate remains to be seen. But this new technology has led to a massive legal and social shift. Globalization The world is changing like never before. Globalization is affecting every aspect of our lives. It affects our culture, our economy, and even our politics. We face new challenges and old challenges dressed up in new clothes. Britain is no different. In fact it can even be argued that Britain is one of the capitals or centres of globalization in the world. It has contacts with so many parts of the world through the Commonwealth and through the old networks and traditions of the British Empire. Indeed, Britain has benefited enormously from this period of economic expansion. But likewise, as economies become more intertwined, we find that they can also become more vulnerable to unexpected shifts and new forms of opaqueness. This isn’t a reason to turn away from globalization, but it is a reason to be vigilant and to erect a legal framework that permits the process to move more smoothly. Although the exact moment of globalization occurring in Britain is a highly debatable question considering the length of Britain’s history and its extensive involvement in world affairs, it could be send that the election of “New Labour” in 1997 marked the rapid acceleration of the period. With Tony Blair’s successful efforts to remake the formerly left-wing, anti-free trade Labour party into a pro-market moderate party, Britain decided to go full steam ahead with economic global integration. The stage had been set a few years earlier. In the words of Merril Stevenson in a thoughtful article on the subject: Britain got its economic act together just as globalisation was accelerating, in the late 1980s. It has managed to catch and ride the current wave successfully, selling the world financial and business services where once it sold cotton textiles and machines. Shifting earlier and more decisively than most countries out of mass manufacturing, where it had few advantages over lower-cost competitors, to more easily defended high-value-added goods and services gave it an edge. Margaret Thatchers painful union-bashing left Britain with flexible labour markets at a time when countries such as France and Germany are struggling with unbudgetable workers and high unemployment. ( Stevenson) While other countries were slow to see the positive ramifications of globalization, Britain was not. It saw what it wanted and it struck. It used the law to break unions, make labour markets more flexible, and negotiate free trade agreements. The law had to adapt to a changing reality. Of course, with current economic events shaking the world economy, we begin to see some of the potential negative effects of globalization for Britain. In a recent visit to the United States, Gordon Brown was keen to point out that the problems started in the U.S. as the result of bad regulations and greed. He said that the “global banking collapse needed a global solution. He called for the same standards in banking ‘of remuneration, accountability, transparency and disclosure all round the world’, saying this would lead to a restoration of confidence in banking” (Wintour). The problems point to one of the serious drawbacks of globalization: when you open your economy up to the other economies of the world you can get very rich as long as they do well—but you also become very vulnerable to their problems too. This is something Britain has become concerned about regarding the E.U. in the past, and now with the American economy in shambles, it must again revisit this difficult situation. Economic integration has many consequences: many of them relating to law. The world has changed a great deal over the last 200 hundred years, and with English law. The common law adapts and statutes are changed by lawmakers. The laws of the land are not static but living breathing things that respond when required. Works consulted Berger, B., Chimera, J., & Blackledge, J.. (2008, April). LODIS, a New Investigative Tool: DNA Is Not Just Court Evidence Anymore. The Police Chief, 75(4), 150. Boivida, Maria. (2006, April 8). “Portugal Plans a Forensic DNA Database.” Newropeans Magazine. http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2059&Itemid=121 CBC News Online. 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