BSM579 Legal Systems and Contract Law Topic 1, Activity 1 If you had to explain the UKs legal system

to a colleague overseas, how would you a. Draw to their attention the salient points of the UK Legal System b. Explain the difference between the legal systems of England & Wales and Scotland a. UK Legal System Unlike many countries throughout the world the UK does not have a written constitution, however this is not of vital importance since most constitutions merely set out the rules and regulations of how the Country will be run and what institutions will run them - in the UK the constitution can be drawn from the acts of Parliament and established law. The branches of the constitution comprise of Legislative bodies, Executive bodies and the Judiciary and it can be said that supremacy follows in the order described above, notwithstanding this it can be said that there are two main sources of Law in the UK, these are decisions of the courts and Legislation At the heart of the UK legal system is the Legislative body of the House of Commons (Westminster Parliament) which is the supreme law making body, this is supplemented by the House of Lords and further supplemented by the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Irish Assembly (which has some devolved powers) and the Welsh Assembly (which has no legislative powers). UK Legislative Body The House of Commons comprises of elected MPs, (646 in number) who are elected to serve their constituencies interests and to act in legislative matters presented in the house, whilst the House of Lords consists of in excess of 700 unelected peers (either life peers or hereditary peers, however the latter of these will be phased out) whos main function is to review and add clarity / balance to bills presented by the House of Commons, this is a useful fall back since the House of Lords will have more time to study the bills and they may not be constrained by party politics (that said their powers are somewhat limited). UK Executive Body The Executive body comprises of the Government of the House of Commons which is lead by the Prime Minister of the political party securing the most seats on a first past the post system, thereafter the Prime Minister selects his / her government ministers to run the respective departments of the government this will then be the main source of the introduction of bills to be come law. Legislation may also be created via Statutory instruments (Scottish Statutory Instruments in Scotland), whereby powers are conferred upon government ministers to introduce acts of Parliament these in general pass very quickly and smoothly into the statute books. UK Judiciary The UK Judiciary can be described as the court system, where again a hierarchy exists, however this has no power to overturn acts of parliament, it should merely implement them unless they consider that a Statutory Instrument has been imposed whereby the minister imposing same has overstepped his authority (ultra vires) whereby they may choose to ignore the act.

b. Difference between legal Systems in England & Wales and Scotland The differences in legal systems in England & Wales and Scotland have their roots dating back to 1707 when Scotland retained its own legal system (almost intact) when the Act of Union came into being in 1707. Using the branches of the constitution, the following differences can be identified Legislative Body Scotland has its own legislative body which was created by the Scotland Act 1998 (known as the Scottish Parliament) in this Parliament there are 129 MSPs who are elected via a first past the post system for each constituency (73 Nr) and a balance is elected from party roles on a proportionate representative basis (56 Nr). Of significance is that the House of Commons has certain reserved rights (such as tax matters etc) which the Scottish Parliament cannot interfere with or set aside. In terms of Scottish Acts of Parliament, these are ratified by the House of Commons, whereas the bills produced by the House of Commons is ratified and / or amended by the House of Lords. Executive Body The government of the Scottish Parliament is headed by the First Minister of the Party who has secured the most seats or a working majority (by way of collaboration etc), whereas the government of the House of Commons is headed by the Prime minister. Judiciary The two court systems are completely separate however the highest appeal authority rests for both in the new Supreme Court which is overseen by twelve Supreme Court Justices (two of which are Scottish), that said the structure of the courts are different and some terms applied are different (such as Pursuer in Scotland and Claimant in England & Wales)