uk + 5 voc

• England


  The country only
• Great Britain


  Ireland (all Ireland), Scotland, England, Wales
• UK


  Northern Ireland (only North), Scotland, England, Wales
• to keep records


  enregistrer/tenir des archives
• to try a case

  juger une affaire
• a trial


  un procès
• to be under oath

  être sous serment
• the plaintiff (a claimant in UK)

  le plaignant/le demandeur
• the defendant


  le défendeur
• statute


  a written law passed by a legislative body (Parliament)
• stare decisis


  the legal of following a precedent/previous court decision (doctrine)
• a matter of first impression


  the facts/circumstances are different from any previous court's decision (landmark cases)
• to bind/be binding on the court

  the court is obliged to follow a decision of a previous case
• widespread


  répandu, généralisé
• a plea/to plead


  une plaidoirie, plaider
• to sit in court

  siéger/assister aux audiences
• trial by ordeal


  jugement par épreuve (ex: de feu ou d'eau)
• a statement of the facts

  énoncé des faits
• to place great weight on...

  accorder une grande importance à...
• to pledge


  to promise
• a bishop


  un évêque
• a peer (or be judged by one's peers)

  un pair/égal
• a writ


  un mandat/assignation/ordonnance
• The Common Law: What is Common Law? How important is it? Why and how did the principles of it developed in England?
• Common Law


  part of English law based on rules developed by the Royal Courts during the 3 centuries after the Norman Conquest (1066), rules of law developed by the Courts as opposed by those created by statutes, general system of law deriving exclusively from Court's decisions
• Common Law


  droit coutumier/common law (no translation), not droit commun
• Common Law


  • It's a legal system that gives great weight to precedent (jurisprudence) on the principle that it's unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions, when the parties disagree on what the law is, a Common Law Court refers to past/precedent decisions, if a case has been resolved in the past, the Court is bound to follow the reasoning used in the old cases (stare decisis), if the Court finds that the current dispute is completely distinct from all the old cases (matter of first impression), judges have the authority/duty (devoir) to make a law by creating precedent (it will bind future course)
• Common law systems


  • court decisions have the same force of law as statutes, based on History and English law, adversarial procedure: 2 parties facing each other and defending themselves, neutral judge, jury, courts don't have authority to act where there is no statute
• Civil law systems (droit commun)


  • based on History, Roman law and the Napoleonic Code, inquisitorial procedure: examining magistrate studies evidence on both sides during preliminary inquiry/the investigation phase (ask questions to find out what happened)
• Importance of Common Law

  • Common Law is the base of the legal systems of the UK (not only England or Great Britain), of the United States (except Louisiana because it was a colony of France; 1731: Louisiana is French, 1763: Louisiana sold to Spain, 1800: Louisiana came back to France and was sold by Napoleon (1803)), and of all the English speaking countries, Composition of the British Constitutional Law: legislation (Parliament), judicial precedents, constitutional conventions, Common law is one the oldest and one of the most widespread tradition in the world
• Norman Conquest and Early English Law: Early English Law was based on handwritten customs, 1066: Battle of Hastings → William of Normandy defeated the Anglo-Saxons, historians recognize William the Norman at the beginning of the transformation of the legal system, Normans didn't revolutionize the legal system, but adapted the Anglo-Saxon legal system to their needs/wants, England is unified, the Normans facilitated the development of a Common law system
• Examples of how Normans adapted the Anglo-Saxon legal system


  • the shires (counties) were governed by reeves (sheriffs), all land belonged to the Crown/monarch and were given to all the ones who pledge loyalty to the King, justice responsibility of the monarch in the realm by collecting taxes (the King's Peace)
• Royal Courts were developed by Henry II: "No man has left a deeper mark upon our laws and institutions" (Winston Churchill), Courts mainly developed in the XII-XIII centuries, 3 permanent courts created with professional judges sat in Westminster (courts developed from the King and his councils → Curia Regis): Court of Exchequer, Common Bench, King's Bench
• Court of Exchequer


  specialized in financial matters (taxes)
• Common Bench


  civil cases/litigations between private individuals (title to lands, debts…), power to supervise the local records of the sheriffs → "common pleas"
• King's Bench


  cases with a direct royal interest → "pleas of the crown", particularly about criminal law, concerned the King because he has the duty to protect the peace of his kingdom
• The Itinerant Royal Justices: uniformity of the legal system could happen if the law was practised around the country, vital role of the judges (judged in the name of the Crown), Kings sent justices/commissions to different parts of the country to solve certain cases, Assize system: courts were held in the main counties, in which there was at least 12 men here to give a verdict based on their knowledge of the facts, dealt with people who committed capital crimes (murder, rape…), but also dealt with civil cases, reformed drastically in 1971, Nisi prius (unless before): a writ (assignation) commanding the sheriff of a county to summon a jury, and to bring it to the court in Westminster on a certain day (unless the judges of assize already came to that country)
• The Jury and Common Law Courts: The King introduced a new procedure of trial by jury, After the XIIth century, both civil and criminal cases were trial by ordeal, Henry II didn't invented the trial by jury, it was created in France by the Carolingian kings (Charlemagne), Since Henry II, the Common Law system developed the trial by jury, Those juries weren't the same as they are today, During the XIVth century, juries began to take on the neutral role they have today, when they have the evidence presented to them in court, They now have no previous knowledge of the facts of the case, and it must be a person unknown to the accused, The verdict is more generally a judgement, a decision or a conclusion
• The Magna Carta and the Habeas Corpus: The Magna Carta means "Great Charter", It's a charter of rights for the barons, the bishops and the common man, It was made in 1215, It was made to settle the conflicts with the King, it guaranteed the freedom of the Church, restricted taxes and fines, It promised justice to all (fairness and equity), It guaranteed that no person should be imprisoned, deprived of his property or outlawed (= banni), except by the lawful judgments of his peers or by the law of the land, That was the foundation of democracy, The English Crown was more powerful, but not above the law, The Habeas Corpus: First expressed in the Magna Carta, It said that no free man should be ceased, imprisoned, ect before being legally judged, This principle evolved through time, to mean that no person should be deprived of its freedom without a true process of law, The person detained has to be brought before a judge for him to determine whether a person was being legally held or not, It was to prevent from unlawful detentions/imprisonments, It was used during the XIIIth and XIVth century, before it was evolved to the Habeas Corpus Act in 1679
• The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679: The Habeas Corpus Act was registered in law to stop the King from holding someone illegally