The Different Source of Law in England and Wales Essay

The Different Source of Law in England and Wales - Essay Example The parliament consists of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The two houses usually consist of eight hundred and six hundred and fifty members respectively (Slorach 2013, p.47). Common law, on the hand, is where higher appellate courts’, namely the Court of Appeal and the Supreme court, judgments are set as precedence that are to be followed by all the subordinate courts to make future judgments on similar cases. This is often done to create unity and consistency in making judgments. European Union Laws are laws that are created by the European Union (EU) to which Wales and England are members. Since the EU is greater than the two countries, EU laws often precedence over UK laws (Slapper & Kelly 2011, p.83). The Human Rights Act 1998, which was ratified by member states of Council of Europe to later become known as European Convention on Human Right (ECHR), also serves as a major source of law for the two countries. This is because UK is a signatory to its statute. This, therefore, binds all courts in the two countries to protect human rights using the set conventions as noted in the ECHR. England and Wale’s sources of law are often categorized as either internal or external. The internal sources include the statutory laws and the common law. The external law includes the ECHR and the EU laws. Internal laws are the laws that are created by the law-making organs of the two countries. On the other hand, statutory laws are created by the legislature while common laws are drawn from precedencies set by the two senior most appellate court namely the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court (Reinsch 2004, p.50). The citizens of the two countries uniformly recognize all these organs. External sources of law, on the other hand, are as a result of the ratification of agreed on convention by the European blocks that come together to pursue a common good (Reinsch 2004, p.51).