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The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas , the Common Pleas served as one of the central English courts ...
Common law courts usually use an adversarial system, in which two sides present their cases to a neutral judge. [98] [99] For example, in criminal cases, in adversarial systems, the prosecutor and adjudicator are two separate people. The prosecutor is lodged in the executive branch, and conducts the investigation to locate evidence.
English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The judiciary is independent , and legal principles like fairness , equality before the law , and the right to a fair trial are foundational to the system.
The Senior Courts of England and Wales were originally created by the Judicature Acts as the "Supreme Court of Judicature". It was renamed the "Supreme Court of England and Wales" in 1981, [8] and again to the "Senior Courts of England and Wales" by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (to distinguish it from the new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom).
In 1774, in Somerset v Stewart, one of the most important cases in legal history, Lord Mansfield held that slavery was lawful "in no country" and therefore in common law. [144] In modern case law it has been consistently accepted that it "is a principle of legal policy that [UK] law should conform to public international law."
The Chancery came to prominence after the decline of the Exchequer, dealing with the law of equity, something more fluid and adaptable than the common law.The early Court of Chancery dealt with verbal contracts, matters of land law and matters of trusts, and had a very liberal view when setting aside complaints; poverty, for example, was an acceptable reason to cancel a contract or obligation. [9]
The Case of Prohibitions (1607) (Court of Common Pleas) Bushel's Case (1670) (Court of Common Pleas): establishing the principle that a judge cannot coerce a jury to convict. Entick v Carrington [1765] 19 Howell's State Trials 1030: establishing the civil liberties of individuals and limiting the scope of executive power.
Thus, common law is declaratory, and this is often retrospective in effect. For example, see Shaw v DPP [1] and R v Knuller. [2] In the search for justice and fairness, there is a tension between the needs for, on one hand, predictability and stability, and "up-to date law", on the other. [3] There is a hierarchy of courts, and a hierarchy of ...