A) To what extent are judges in the Court of Appeal and House of Lords free to depart from previous decisions and practice? By Sarah James

The English legal system has many sources of law including European law, statute law, case law, and custom law. Statute law and case law are the two major sources of law and will be discussed in this essay. Firstly though, this essay will discuss and evaluate the civil and criminal court systems and the hierarchy of the courts. It will then go on to critically assess the doctrine of judicial precedent, and theories of declaratory …

…Judges can also use Hansard to discover the intentions of Parliament but this means they may not necessarily try to interpret the statute but go straight to the source. If they do this, it will waste time and they may get a biased opinion. BIBLIOGRAPHY Class Handouts Elliott, C. & Quinn, F. (1998) English Legal System, (2nd Ed), Longman. Hirst, P. & Hirst, M. (1998) Textbook on A Level Law, (2nd Ed), Blackstone Press Ltd.