English law | Britannica (original) (raw)

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• constitutionalism
  • 
    In constitution: Great Britain
    The English constitution and the English common law grew up together, very gradually, more as the result of the accretion of custom than through deliberate, rational legislation by some “sovereign” lawgiver. Parliament grew out of the Curia Regis, the King’s Council, in which the monarch originally…
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  • In constitutional law: Characteristics of constitutions
    …a written constitution and the United Kingdom an unwritten one. In one sense this is true: in the United States there is a formal document called the Constitution, whereas there is no such document in the United Kingdom. In fact, however, many parts of the British constitution exist in written…
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• international law
  • 
    In international law: International law and municipal law
    The United Kingdom takes an incorporationist view, holding that customary international law forms part of the common law. British law, however, views treaties as purely executive, rather than legislative, acts. Thus, a treaty becomes part of domestic law only if relevant legislation is adopted. The same…
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• juvenile justice
  • In juvenile justice: Great Britain
    Early common law made no special provision for children who committed crimes. Provided that the child was over the minimum age for criminal responsibility (originally seven) and had “mischievous discretion” (the ability to tell right from wrong), the child was fully liable as…
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• legal profession
  • 
    In legal profession: Teaching and scholarship
    …in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth in the 19th and 20th centuries was initially carried on part-time by attorneys, barristers, and judges, and some still is. Sir William Blackstone, the first holder of a chair of English law—the Vinerian professorship at Oxford—came from the bar and…
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  • 
    In legal profession: Contemporary trends
    …countries too, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, many of the leading law firms have merged with foreign counterparts, an innovation that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago. Meanwhile, a number of the most economically advanced civil-law states, such as Japan and South Korea, have been…
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• major references
  • 
    In common law
    …to the rules applied in English and American courts of equity and also to statute law. A standing expository difficulty is that, whereas the United Kingdom is a unitary state in international law, it comprises three major (and other minor) legal systems, those of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern…
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  • 
    In common law: Comparisons of modern English, American, and Commonwealth law
    The legal systems rooted in the English common law have diverged from their parent system so greatly over time that, in many areas, the legal approaches of common-law countries differ as much from one another as they do from civil-law…
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contribution by

• Blackstone
  • 
    In Sir William Blackstone
    …1780, Wallingford, Oxfordshire) was an English jurist, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vol. (1765–69), is the best-known description of the doctrines of English law. The work became the basis of university legal education in England and North America. He was knighted in 1770.
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• Wolsey
  • 
    In Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey
    Wolsey’s influence on England’s judicial institutions was far more substantial. Possessed of a great legal mind, he extended the jurisdiction of the Star Chamber—the King’s Council sitting as a court—and used it to impose Henry’s justice on lawless nobles. The conciliar committee that he delegated to hear suits…
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courts

Senior Courts of England and Wales

• In Senior Courts of England and Wales
  …of England and Wales, in England and Wales, judicial body that consists of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice, and the Crown Court.
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• Court of Appeal

  • In Court of Appeal
    England and Wales, part of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and the highest court below the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which assumed the judicial functions of the House of Lords in 2009. The Court of Appeal is based in London in…
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• Crown Court

  • 
    In Crown Court
    …a court system sitting in England and Wales and dealing largely with criminal cases. Created under the Courts Act of 1971, the Crown Court replaced the Crown Court of Liverpool, the Crown Court of Manchester, the Central Criminal Court in London (the Old Bailey), and all the other old assize…
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• High Court of Justice

  • In High Court of Justice
    England and Wales, court system centred in London and comprising three divisions of both original and appellate jurisdiction, mostly in civil matters and only occasionally in criminal cases. The divisions are the Chancery Division, presided over by the chancellor of the High Court in the…
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• Judicature Act of 1873

  • In Judicature Act of 1873
    England, the act of Parliament that created the Supreme Court of Judicature (q.v.) and also, inter alia, enhanced the role of the House of Lords to act as a court of appeal. Essentially, the act was a first modern attempt to reduce the clutter—and the…
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• Assize of Northampton

  • In Assize of Northampton
    …of Northampton, (1176), group of ordinances agreed upon by King Henry II of England and the magnates in council at Northampton. The ordinances were issued as instructions to six committees of three judges each, who were to visit the six circuits into which England was divided for the purpose. The…
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• court baron

  • In court baron
    English manorial court, or halimoot, that any lord could hold for and among his tenants. By the 13th century the steward of the manor, a lawyer, usually presided; originally, the suitors of the court (i.e., the doomsmen), who were bound to attend, acted as judges,…
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• court leet

  • In court leet
    English criminal court for the punishment of small offenses. The use of the word leet, denoting a territorial and a jurisdictional area, spread throughout England in the 14th century, and the term court leet came to mean a court in which a private lord assumed,…
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• Court of Augmentations

  • In Court of Augmentations
    England, the most important of a group of financial courts organized during the reign of Henry VIII; the others were the courts of General Surveyors, First Fruits and Tenths, and Wards and Liveries. They were instituted chiefly so that the crown might gain better control…
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• Court of Chancery

  • In Chancery Division
    In England the common-law courts became firmly established as the principal organs of royal justice by the 14th century. In earlier days they had exercised a wide jurisdiction in framing and applying the rules of the common law, but their most creative period was over. A…
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• Court of Common Pleas

  • In Court of Common Pleas
    English court of law that originated from Henry II’s assignment in 1178 of five members of his council to hear pleas (civil disputes between individuals), as distinguished from litigation to which the crown was a party. This group of councillors did not immediately emerge as…
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• Court of High Commission

  • In Court of High Commission
    English ecclesiastical court instituted by the crown in the 16th century as a means to enforce the laws of the Reformation settlement and exercise control over the church. In its time it became a controversial instrument of repression, used against those who refused to acknowledge…
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• Court of Requests

  • In Court of Requests
    England, one of the prerogative courts that grew out of the king’s council (Curia Regis) in the late 15th century. The court’s primary function was to deal with civil petitions from poor people and the king’s servants.
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• Court of Star Chamber

  • In Star Chamber
    English law, the court made up of judges and privy councillors that grew out of the medieval king’s council as a supplement to the regular justice of the common-law courts. It achieved great popularity under Henry VIII for its ability to enforce the law when…
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• Curia Regis

  • In curia
    …curia is well illustrated in England’s Curia, also known as the Curia Regis, or Aula Regis (“King’s Court”). It was introduced at the time of the Norman Conquest (1066) and lasted to about the end of the 13th century. The Curia Regis was the germ from which the higher courts…
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• ecclesiastical

  • In ecclesiastical court
    In England today the ecclesiastical courts exercise jurisdiction in civil cases concerning church buildings and in criminal cases in which clergymen are accused of ecclesiastical crimes.
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• equity

  • In equity
    …of the 13th century, the English king’s common-law courts had largely limited the relief available in civil cases to the payment of damages and to the recovery of the possession of property. They had refused to extend and diversify their types of relief to meet the needs of new and…
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• High Court of Admiralty

  • In High Court of Admiralty
    England, formerly the court presided over by the deputy of the admiral of the fleet. The Black Book of the Admiralty says it was founded in the reign of Edward I, but it actually appears to have been established by Edward III about 1360. At…
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• magistrates’ court

  • In magistrates’ court
    England and Wales, any of the inferior courts with primarily criminal jurisdiction covering a wide range of offenses from minor traffic violations and public-health nuisances to somewhat more serious crimes, such as petty theft or assault. Magistrates’ courts with similar jurisdictions may be found in…
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  • 
    In court: Lay judges
    In England, part-time lay judges greatly outnumber full-time professional judges. Called magistrates or justices of the peace, they dispose of more than 95 percent of all criminal cases and do so with general public satisfaction and the approbation of most lawyers (see magistrates’ court). Professional judges…
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• petit jury

  • In petit jury
    Although petit juries in England and the United States historically have contained 12 members, there is no uniform number. Numerical requirements for a valid verdict vary (e.g., unanimity in most courts in the United States, a majority in Scotland and Italy, two-thirds in Portugal), as do subject areas of…
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• prerogative

  • In prerogative court
    English law, court through which the discretionary powers, privileges, and legal immunities reserved to the sovereign were exercised. Prerogative courts were originally formed during the period when the monarch exercised greater power than Parliament.
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• quarter sessions

  • In quarter sessions
    England and Wales, sessions of a court held four times a year by a justice of the peace to hear criminal charges as well as civil and criminal appeals. The term also applied to a court held before a recorder, or judge, in a borough…
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• summary jurisdiction

  • In summary jurisdiction
    In England crimes are classified as either summary offenses, which are tried by magistrates’ courts, or indictable offenses, for which there is a right to a jury trial. There also are offenses that may in some cases be treated in either way. Since the mid-20th century,…
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documents and writs

• assize
  • In assize
    In modern England assizes (abolished in 1971) were periodic sessions of the High Court of Justice held in the counties; they dealt with issues such as the trying of prisoners who committed crimes in jail and regular cases of treason and murder. In France (and in Germany…
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• brief
  • In brief
    In England a brief is a document of instructions prepared by a solicitor for a barrister to follow in court. Only the barrister may appear before the high court but can act on behalf of a litigant only pursuant to instructions from a solicitor. In the…
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• certiorari
  • In certiorari
    …first an original writ from England’s Court of Queen’s Bench to the judges of inferior courts ordering them to present certain records. Certiorari was later expanded to include the chancery (equity) courts. The writ was abolished in 1938, but the High Court of Justice retained the right to make an…
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• court reports
  • In law report
    The earliest English court reports were the Year Books produced from the late 13th to the 16th century. From 1537 until 1865 hundreds of series of English reports were published under the names of the reporters themselves. During both periods reporting was a disorganized private enterprise, the…
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• law codes
  • In law code
    In common-law countries, such as Great Britain and the United States, general law codes are the exception rather than the rule, largely because much of the law is based on previous judicial decisions. In the United States these codifications tend to be narrower, covering different types of procedure or penal…
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• writ of mandamus
  • In mandamus
    …formal writ issued by the English crown commanding an official to perform a specific act within the duty of the office. It later became a judicial writ issued from the Court of Queen’s Bench, in the name of the sovereign, at the request of an individual suitor whose interests were…
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history

• capital punishment
  • 
    In capital punishment: Historical considerations
    …large number of offenses in England during the 17th and 18th centuries, but it was never applied as widely as the law provided. As in other countries, many offenders who committed capital crimes escaped the death penalty, either because juries or courts would not convict them or because they were…
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• common law
  • 
    In administrative law: Origins
    The common-law system originated in England in the Middle Ages. In the 17th century relations between the courts and the executive developed into a constitutional struggle between the Stuart kings and the judges over the judges’ right to decide questions affecting the royal power and even to pronounce an independent…
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• Ine’s code
  • In Ine
    …for the structure of early English society.
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• legal profession
  • 
    In legal profession: England after the Conquest
    England after the Norman Conquest of 1066 also was influenced by Roman example, and the clerics who staffed the Norman and Plantagenet monarchies and who provided the earliest of their judges enabled the notion of a legal profession, and especially of…
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• Norman influence
  • 
    In Germanic law: Rise of feudal and monarchial states
    In England the Norman conquerors continued the movement toward legal unity begun by the Anglo-Saxons by imposing on the country a centralized form of government more powerful than any on the Continent. In the 12th century Henry II made the king’s court a permanent court of…
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• origins
  • 
    In England: Justice of England
    …the Commonwealth, the system of English law that has acquired a status and universality to match Roman law. English law has its origins in Anglo-Saxon times, and two of its hallmarks are its preference for customary law (the common law) rather than statute law and its system of application by…
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• patent system
  • 
    In patent
    …of new industries, as in England at the time of Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603). However, the sentiment slowly grew that the English crown was abusing its authority to grant such rights, and the Privy Council and then the common-law courts began to scrutinize patents more carefully. Finally, in 1623…
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influence on

• Indian law
  • In Indian law
    The English common law is the residual law in the high courts of Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), and Madras (now Chennai); and, at times with the aid of relevant British statutes, it is the residual law also in all other jurisdictions representing the old…
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  • 
    In India: The Company Bahadur
    …network of civil and criminal courts in place of the deputy nawab’s. The same law was administered by British judges, who were often incompetent, but a model was provided into which Western ideas and practices could later be fed.
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  • 
    In India: The company and the state
    …supreme court decided to administer English law (the only law it knew) and to apply it not only to all the British in Bengal but also to all Indians connected with them; in practice this meant those Indians in Calcutta, and it led to such grave abuses as the hanging…
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• Israeli law
  • 
    In Israeli law
    … enactments and much law of English origin continued to be applied, but English ceased to be the predominant legal language and was immediately replaced by Hebrew. The law was thenceforth made by the democratic authorities of the autonomous state of Israel, which, in spite of an Arab minority, became Jewish…
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• marriage law
  • In common-law marriage
    Common-law marriages were valid in England until Lord Hardwicke’s Act of 1753. The act did not apply to Scotland, however, and for many years thereafter couples went north across the border to thwart the ban. On the European continent, common-law marriages were frequent in the Middle Ages, but their legality…
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  • 
    In marriage law
    …law as it developed in England specified the requisites of marriage as being the following: each party shall have attained a certain age; each shall be sexually competent and mentally capable; each shall be free to marry; each shall give his or her consent to marry; the parties shall be…
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• Roman-Dutch law
  • In Roman-Dutch law: Survival and growth abroad of Roman-Dutch law
    The influence of English law (which was operative even during the period of the republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State) has been most marked in criminal law and procedure, civil procedure, evidence, constitutional law, and, particularly, the commercial field of companies, bills of exchange, maritime law,…
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• Yemen law
  • 
    In Yemen: Justice
    , marriage, divorce, inheritance) and British commercial and common law (modified to suit the needs of the Marxist government) and, in rural areas, a combination of Sharīʿah and ʿurf.
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• Zambian law
  • 
    In Zambia: Justice
    …local courts is based on English common law, decisions of the higher British courts are of persuasive value; in fact, a few statutes of the British Parliament that were declared by ordinance (decree) to apply to Zambia are in force so far as circumstances permit. Most of the laws presently…
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jurisdiction

• advisory opinions
  • In advisory opinion
    …opinions originated very early in English law as a result of extralegal consultation of judges by the king or the House of Lords on questions that often were not even related to the law. The function of the opinions was wholly non- or extralegal.
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• appeals
  • In appeal
    In England appeals on matters of fact in some instances go to different courts than do those on matters of law. The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal. The Supreme Court of Japan serves as a final appeals court on questions of fact, law,…
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• bill of attainder
  • In attainder
    English law, the extinction of civil and political rights resulting from a sentence of death or outlawry after a conviction of treason or a felony.
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• conscientious objector
  • In conscientious objector
    In Great Britain a noncombatant corps was established during World War I, but many conscientious objectors refused to belong to it. During World War II, three types of exemption could be granted: (1) unconditional; (2) conditional on the undertaking of specified civil work; (3) exemption only…
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• criminal insanity test
  • In insanity
    In M’Naghten’s Case (1843) the English judges held that “to establish a defence on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused as labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as…
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• full pardons
  • In pardon
    In England it is said that a full pardon clears the person from all infamy, removing all disqualifications and other obloquy, so that a pardoned person may take action for defamation against anyone who thereafter refers to him or her as a convict. In the United…
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• immunity
  • In immunity
    In England and the United States legislators are immune from civil liability for statements made during legislative debate. They are also immune from criminal arrest, although they are subject to legal action for crime. French law and practice prohibits the arrest of a member of the…
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• impeachment
  • 
    In impeachment
    In Great Britain the House of Commons serves as prosecutor and the House of Lords as judge in an impeachment proceeding. In the federal government of the United States, the House of Representatives institutes impeachment proceedings by authorizing a formal inquiry by the House Judiciary Committee,…
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• indictment
  • In indictment
    …jury system was eliminated in England in 1933, and current law there provides for a bill of indictment to be presented to the court when the person accused has been committed to trial by a magistrate and in certain other cases.
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• injunction
  • In injunction
    …the Court of Chancery in England had begun to grant injunctions as a remedy for the inadequacy of decisions in the common-law courts. Often an award of damages did not fully protect the plaintiff (e.g., if the defendant intended to continue a trespass or a breach of covenant despite the…
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• interrogation
• pleading
  • In pleading
    Thus, a defendant under English law may issue a notice—called a third-party notice—containing a statement of the nature of the claim made by him against a third party, relevant to the original subject matter of the action or of issues to be determined. A third party has the same…
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• precedent
  • 
    In court
    …their legal systems from the English model; and civil law, as represented by countries of western Europe and Latin America and certain Asian and African countries that have modeled their legal systems on western European patterns.
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• statute of limitations
  • In statute of limitations
    In England there is no general statute of limitations applicable to criminal actions, although statutes defining certain actions as criminal frequently have included time limits for their prosecution.
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legislation

business

• agency
  • 
    In agency: Medieval influence of canon law and Germanic law
    …principal and agent developed in England as an outgrowth or expansion of the doctrine of master and servant. Anglo-Norman law created the figures of ballivus and attornatus. His position in the household of his master empowered the ballivus to transact commercial business for his master, reminiscent of the power of…
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• commercial
  • 
    In commercial transaction: Contractual relations
    …certain well-known trade associations, especially British ones, such as the London Corn Trade Association, were used by exporters and importers in many countries. The same was true of many shipping transactions. Even international bodies, such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, elaborated printed forms for certain international contracts.…
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• contract
  • 
    In contract: Other problems of contract law
    English law took the view that, as a rule, persons cannot acquire a right on a contract to which they are not a party. Some of the problems posed are difficult to resolve: under what circumstances and to what extent should the third party control…
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• labour
  • 
    In labour law: Historical development of labour law
    …association was repealed in the United Kingdom in 1824 and in France in 1884; there have been many subsequent changes in the law and may well be further changes, but these have related to matters of detail rather than to fundamental principles. In the United States freedom of association for…
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• management liability
  • 
    In business organization: Types of business associations
    …liability for defrauding creditors in English law and liability for deficiencies of assets in bankruptcy in French law, people who act as directors and participate in the management of the company’s affairs are treated as such even though they have not been formally appointed.
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criminal

• In criminal law: Common law and code law
  …the criminal law of most English-speaking countries and that of other countries. The criminal law of England and the United States derives from the traditional English common law of crimes and has its origins in the judicial decisions embodied in reports of decided cases. England has consistently rejected all efforts…
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• 
  In crime
  …law can be found, though English law—the source of many other criminal-law systems—remains uncodified. The definitions of particular crimes contained in a code must be interpreted in the light of many principles, some of which may not actually be expressed in the code itself. For example, many legal systems take…
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• contributory negligence
  • In contributory negligence
    In English law since the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act (1945) and in many states in the United States, if the plaintiff is shown to have contributed to the injury, recovery may still be allowed, but provision is made for an equitable reduction of damages.
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• defamation
  • In defamation
    …defamation is a creation of English law (see common law), similar doctrines existed in ancient and medieval times. In Roman law, for example, abusive chants were punishable by death (see capital punishment). In early English and Germanic law, insults were
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• deportation
  • In deportation
    In England deportation developed from the policy of allowing an arrested man the option to abjure the realm. He would take an oath to depart and never return. Often this represented the convict’s only alternative to execution. Gradually a formal system of transportation of convicted criminals…
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• extenuating circumstance
  • In extenuating circumstance
    In England, the jury may reduce a charge of murder to manslaughter if the accused is found to be suffering diminished responsibility (distinguished from insanity, which permits acquittal).
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• homicide
  • 
    In homicide
    Whereas in England death resulting from a felony is defined as murder only in the case of a few serious crimes, such as robbery or rape, European codes often punish any killer as a murderer if the culprit has employed a deadly weapon.
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• obscenity
  • In obscenity: Obscenity laws in the 18th and 19th centuries
    Thus, the 18th-century English laws that regulated indecent or suggestive materials were also used to suppress criticism of government ministers and other favoured political figures. In the 1760s the journalist and politician John Wilkes, a leading government critic, was charged with seditious libel for his periodical _North Briton_…
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• outlawry
  • In outlawry
    In England, on proof of the mere fact of major outlawry, the offender was sentenced to death and was often killed on sight or during the effort to arrest him. Conviction for major outlawry also effected the immediate forfeiture of all property and possessions to the…
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• parole
  • In parole
    England developed a system of “ticket of leave,” in which convicts detained under a sentence of transportation were allowed a measure of freedom or the right to return to England in return for good behaviour. England abolished the sentence of transportation in the mid-19th century…
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• peine forte et dure
  • In peine forte et dure
    English law, punishment that was inflicted upon those who were accused of a felony and stood silent, refusing to plead either guilty or not guilty, or upon those who challenged more than 20 prospective jurors. For example, English law permitted defendants the right to challenge…
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• riot
  • 
    In riot
    In the United States, the United Kingdom, and India, riot is usually a misdemeanour punishable by light sentences. However, laws in the United Kingdom provide for harsher penalties when rioters refuse to disperse after they have been ordered to do so by a magistrate. In the United States, Canada, and…
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• treason
  • In treason
    In English law, treason includes the levying of war against the government and the giving of aid and comfort to the monarch’s enemies. It is also treason to violate the monarch’s consort, eldest unmarried daughter, or heir’s wife.
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• vagrancy
  • 
    In vagrancy
    In English law, a man who deserted his wife and children was considered a vagrant, as was any man who gave a false account of himself.
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inheritance

• 
  In inheritance: Critiques of inheritance
  …has been limited by the Administration of Estates Act of 1925 to relatives no more remote than the grandparents, uncles, and aunts of the deceased. Even more restrictive than those of England are the intestacy laws of communist countries. Under the law of the Soviet Union, intestate succession did not…
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• 
  In inheritance: Examples of existing laws
  The principal features of the intestacy rules of England, the U.S. state of New York, the U.S. Uniform Probate Code, France, and the former Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic are presented below.
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• feoffment
  • In feoffment
    English law, the granting of a free inheritance of land (fee simple) to a man and his heirs. The delivery of possession (livery of seisin) was done on the site of the land and was made by the feoffor to the feoffee in the presence…
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• heir
  • In heir
    In English common law, originally an heir was one who inherited real estate; next of kin inherited personal property. With important exceptions (titles of nobility, etc.), statutory law has all but abolished the distinction.
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• heraldry
  • 
    In heraldry: Uses of heraldry for study and verification
    …insight into the development of English law.
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• probate
  • In probate
    …special proceedings was developed in England by the ecclesiastical courts, which in the Middle Ages had acquired jurisdiction over succession to personal property. No such idea had been worked out by the secular courts, which had jurisdiction over the descent of real property. In America, secular courts were set up…
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marriage

• alimony
  • In alimony
    In England, alimony was purely a creation of statute—probably arising out of the medieval church’s belief that divorce could not terminate the obligations of marriage in the eyes of God. Scandinavian countries treat husband and wife as equals in divorce suits, allowing reciprocal claims for injury.…
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• community property
  • In community property
    The English common law considered wives as legal extensions of their husbands and unable to own property. Various statutes in the late 19th century modified this concept in both England and the United States, and the classifications of community and separate property began to assume the…
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property

• In property
  The medieval English legal system similarly showed the tendency at critical points to agglomerate property rights in a single individual. A notion of property in land emerged at the end of the 12th century in England from a mass of partly discretionary, partly customary, feudal rights and…
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• 
  In property law: England
  In medieval English law, the procedural system prevented any clear distinction between property and obligation. It was not until the abolition of the forms of action in the 19th century that Anglo-American law distinguished between property and obligation in the way the Romans had. It is therefore…
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• 
  In property law: Possession of tangible things
  English law also had to deal with a fairly complicated social fact, seisin, the process by which a lord put his man in possession of a tenement. In English law the concept of seisin was also applied to tangible things other than land, things that…
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• 
  In property law: Temporal divisions
  The English law on the topic was considerably simplified in 1925, when it became impossible to have legal ownership divided temporally other than between landlord and tenant. English law, however, continues to allow complicated temporal divisions of beneficial interests in trusts, allowing, therefore, a temporal division…
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• 
  In property law: Protection of the family against intentional disinheritance
  English law did not recognize adoption until 1926. Modern Anglo-American law has come to recognize adopted children as, in most jurisdictions and for the most part, equal in inheritance rights to natural children. The civil law has had less difficulty recognizing the rights of adopted…
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• escheat
  • In escheat
    English land law, the return or forfeiture to the lord of land held by his tenant. There were generally two conditions by which land would escheat: the death of the tenant without heirs or the conviction of the tenant for a felony. In case of…
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• treasure trove
  • In treasure trove
    In England and similarly in Scotland, the right to treasure trove is in the crown, which may grant it as a franchise. Such articles are presumed to have once had an owner; and, in his absence, they belong not to the finder but to the crown.…
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transportation

• carriage of goods

  • 
    In carriage of goods: Common-law common carrier
    In England carriers of goods by land that are not classified as common carriers are termed private carriers; carriers of goods by sea or by inland water that are not classified as common carriers may be public carriers, namely, professional carriers who do not hold themselves…
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• maritime

  • 
    In maritime law: Historical development
    The Admiralty was a royal court with valuable emoluments. It functioned without the aid of juries, following procedures borrowed from the Continent that were somewhat less dilatory and cumbersome than those of the common-law courts, and applied the laws and customs of the sea to the maritime controversies that…
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• libel

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    In novel: Social and economic aspects
    In some countries, particularly Great Britain, the law of libel presents insuperable problems to novelists who, innocent of libellous intent, are nevertheless sometimes charged with defamation by persons who claim to be the models for characters in works of fiction. Disclaimers to the effect that “resemblances to real-life people…
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• medical regulation

  • 
    In health law: The tolerant systems
    …system is best exemplified in Britain, where there is no formal legal monopoly of medicine. The protected status is that of registered medical practitioner. Under the Medical Act of 1978, persons who have fulfilled statutory education and examination requirements are entitled to be registered. Registered physicians have certain exclusive rights,…
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• procedural

  • 
    In procedural law: English common law
    Originally, procedure in English local and feudal courts resembled quite closely that of other countries with a Germanic legal tradition. Unlike the continental European countries, however, England never romanized its indigenous procedure but instead developed a procedure of its own capable of substantial growth and adjustment. England’s ability…
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  • 
    In conflict of laws: Diversity of legal systems
    …exist between the laws of England, Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and Northern Ireland. Significant bodies of regional law also exist alongside national private law in France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Thus, in the Alsace-Lorraine area of France, parties may still resort to concepts of German law…
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• sumptuary law

  • In sumptuary law
    In England during the reign of Edward II a proclamation was issued against the “outrageous and excessive multitude of meats and dishes which the great men of the Kingdom had used, and still used, in their castles.” Besides the standing regulations governing dress, Edward III in…
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• test acts

  • In test act
    …not at first necessary in England, where penal laws against those who failed to conform to the established church were so severe as automatically to exclude such persons from public life. In the more tolerant climate of the late 17th and 18th centuries, Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters were normally…
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• torts

  • In tort: Protection of honour, reputation, and privacy
    English law, by contrast, is much more jealous of reputation, though numerous complicated defenses also make sure that free speech is not totally throttled. But in the main the English law of defamation is complex and archaic. The old distinction between libel and slander (defamatory…
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professions and offices

• assigned counsel
  • In assigned counsel
    Although Great Britain provided legal aid earlier (1949) than the United States, the United States was at the forefront in providing assigned counsel. Beginning in 1963 in Gideon v. Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that upheld the rights of indigent…
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• attorney general
  • In attorney general
    Today the British attorney general and his assistant, the solicitor general, represent the crown in the courts and are legal advisers to the sovereign and the sovereign’s ministers. The attorney general is a member of the government but not of the cabinet. He is consulted on the…
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• bailiff
  • In bailiff
    In medieval England there were bailiffs who served the lord of the manor, while others served the hundred courts and the sheriff. The bailiffs of manors were, in effect, superintendents; they collected fines and rents, served as accountants, and were, in general, in charge of the land…
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• barrister
  • 
    In barrister
    …types of practicing lawyers in England and Wales, the other being the solicitor. In general, barristers engage in advocacy (trial work) and solicitors in office work, but there is a considerable overlap in their functions. The solicitor, for example, may appear as an advocate in the lower courts, whereas barristers…
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• coroner
  • In coroner
    The office originated in England and was first referred to as custos placitorum (Latin: “keeper of the pleas”) in the Articles of Eyre of 1194, although there is some evidence that it may have existed earlier. The name was originally “crowner,” or “coronator,” derived from the Latin corona, meaning…
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• justice of the peace
  • In justice of the peace
    In England and Wales a magistrate is appointed on behalf of the crown, to keep the peace within a specific district. The duties of the modern-day justices of the peace, who preside in the magistrates’ courts of England and Wales, evolved from those first bestowed upon…
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• justiciar
  • In justiciar
    English judicial official of the king who, unlike all other officers of the central administration, was not a member of the king’s official household. The justiciarship originated in the king’s need for a responsible subordinate who could take a wide view of the affairs of…
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• lord chancellor
  • In lord chancellor
    …lord chancellor to concentrate on constitutional affairs.
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• lord chief justice
  • In lord chief justice
    …justice, the head of the judiciary of England and Wales. The lord chief justice traditionally served as head of the Queen’s (or King’s) Bench Division of the High Court of Justice and as head of the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal. Under a constitutional reform of 2005 that…
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• lord high steward
  • In lord high steward
    …honorific office that came to England with the Norman ducal household. From 1153 it was held by the earls of Leicester and then of Lancaster until it came into the hands of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, who assumed control over the minor King Richard II and strengthened the…
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• lord steward
  • In lord steward
    …the lord steward also had legal and judicial authority. He presided over the counting house, or Board of Green Cloth, where together with the cofferer and others he controlled expenditures and made the necessary provisions for the royal household. The board also had the power to maintain peace within the…
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• prosecutor
  • In prosecutor
    In the United Kingdom, prosecution is carried out in the name of the crown. In this sense the crown can be said to prosecute, and the prosecution is often referred to as “the crown.”
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• recorder
  • In recorder
    In England and Wales the recorder, in the course of time, came to be a locality’s chief legal officer and sole judge at quarter sessions. When the quarter sessions courts were abolished by the Courts Act of 1971, the recorder’s jurisdiction moved to the Crown Court.
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• solicitor
  • In solicitor
    …types of practicing lawyers in England and Wales—the other being the barrister, who pleads cases before the court. Solicitors carry on most of the office work in law, and, in general, a barrister undertakes no work except through a solicitor, who prepares and delivers the client’s instructions. Solicitors confer with…
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