Assess the different sources of the law in England and Wales. To what Essay - 7

Assess the different sources of the law in England and Wales. To what extent have external sources affected its development - Essay Example The public laws are used to enforce order among citizens and the state while private laws are used to enforce order between citizens and organization that fall in the private domain. These two laws are further broken down into civil law and criminal law (Goodchild, Embly & Slorach2013 P.34). As a sub branch of Public law , criminal law entails laws which define what is acceptable as appropriate conduct and a contravention of such laws is deemed an offence to not only the individuals affected but to the society as a whole. Civil laws fall within private laws and are used to solve disputes which arise in family matters in cases such as inheritance or domestic violence. They are also used in cases of probate and law as well as contracts, negligence and employment. Common law can be defined as legal precedent that is made by judges sitting in a court. Common law is constantly changing because the interpretation and knowledge of legal precedent and application of common sense as pertains to individual’s cases and available facts is bound to change (Antoine 2008, P.4) Common law can be traced back to three English crown courts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (Wingfield 2009, P7). These courts were the Common pleas, the King’s Bench and the Exchequer. It was assumed in those times that the custom of the people was the law as stipulated by the Kings’ courts. Even though the decisions were based on prior judicial pronouncements, in cases where there were statutes stipulated to govern particular disputes, judicial interpretation of those statutes were sought in order to evaluate how the law would apply in such case scenarios. Judges in the courts are tasked with creating the common laws by delivering written judgments about the cases before them. The Magistrate courts or other lesser courts are however not allowed to make their own precedent as this would lead to confusion in different regions of England and Wales (Antoine 2008,