Research Paper on:
The English Legal System

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
of the process. We must also remember in modern times there is also the influence of the European Union and the European Courts of Justice (ECJ). Common law is  the first source of law for England. This is an unwritten law (Ivany, 2000). The roots of this go back to the Anglo Saxon times when there were three different  legal systems in operation (Barker and Padfield, 1996). These were; Dane Law, adopted after the invasion and settlement by Scandinavian warriors, located in the North and North East of England.  The second system was Mercian Law, this had Germanic roots, and extended down into the midlands, the third system was the more native law, that of Wessex Law, which was  applied to the south and the west of the country (Barker and Padfield, 1996). At this time there was little differentiation between civil and criminal transgressions, the laws that were  used may be seen as primitive, but effective in the time, there were even courts, three types existed, the most important being the shire court (James, 1996).  The principle source of law currently is that of legislation. This has become to most common form of new law since the seventh century (Barker and  Padfield, 1996). These are seen as the more modern laws. This took the place of primacy over the former common law which was based on the older unwritten laws of  England. Therefore, we can see that the former unwritten laws were being replaced with the written laws. The power of the statues were also much wider, they are capable of  being applied to all of the jurisdiction in the United Kingdom, rather than being limited to only some, as was the former law (James, 1996).