Explain The Origin Of Law, Why It Came Into Existence, How And Why It Evolved. Explain The Benefits Of Case Law And Its Relationship To Society.
Law can best be described as an organization of rules that are developed and enforced via social and governmental agencies to regulate conduct and instill order (Weatherill, 2016). Law being a primary system in the society is essential in controlling and monitoring to ensure that a given community expresses respect and equality amongst selves. Law, in other words, is demarcated as enforceable guidelines for creating order (Weatherill, 2016). Order is inseparable from law components in the civilized society. Having a law mainly means the presence of public order. It is this law that creates a distinction amid lawlessness and a civilized society. Everything that the contemporary society has today and all that is highly valued in a democratic nation is because of the presence of rule of law. Without a law, it is only the rule of strength that can govern individuals which results in conflict which would, in turn, affect civilization and order (Weatherill, 2016).
Law was developed not only to create an orderly society but also to protect individual’s rights and privileges while regulating behaviors. Without law, then it would not even be possible to make independent choices and decisions since governorship would be based on power. The history of law’s origin connects back to the rise of civilization (Thayer, 1893). The modern law that is applied today has had to endure many changes from where it originated. Beginning with the Napoleonic Code and ultimately developing the sanctioned American constitution. Roma arrived in England and brought the Roman code, where law began. This Roman Code was an inflexible code that in real sense was not modified much (Thayer, 1893). It was characterized by much details which led to it being broken into different codes for better understanding. With this law, it was hard to create order in societies characterized by diversity. Based on the Failure of Rome, the Dark period and the administration could not survive but this created a foundation for the current administration. In 1215 The Magna Carta became the foremost document to be developed to guiding an organized administration which led to acknowledgment of individuals rights (Thayer, 1893).
During the issuance period, people began to form groupings and controlled themselves based on customs, religion, and culture and so on which resulted in the evolution of the Roman Code (Weatherill, 2016). Given that the living style has begun to develop and became more complex, this code was no longer effective as law and modification were necessary to ensure that the government was fully able to guard its citizens (Weatherill, 2016). With this changes, it was labeled as the English Common Law. After the American revolution, the united states under the influence of the enlightenment thinkers ideas who advocated for equality in government formed the constitution as their governing law to not only create order but also to ensure that its citizen's rights are fully guarded. Power was shifted from the decentralized setting to a more centralized one in order to create more trustable associations amid the citizens and government as a form of honoring commitments (Weatherill, 2016).
Case law refers to the law that is created via appellate courts conclusions in regard to how the law is related to evidence and whether these kind of proofs are a constituent of a legitimate erroneous (Anderlini, Felli & Riboni, 2008). In this context, court attempt to make decisions and compare facts based on a previous case that is related and only make modification if the facts are different and they necessitate distinct outcomes. This usually offers dependability and uniformity within the legal system since cases are to be viewed in an equal strategy. Case law is essential as it relates to the responsiveness to actual issues in the society on the grounds of reliable concepts and reasonability which offers more decision basis as compared to a decree (Anderlini, Felli & Riboni, 2008). The disadvantage is that once a pattern has been established by the courts then it becomes particularly challenging to alter it in events where the facts are close or are slightly different since the referencing becomes the primary ground of making decisions. In that, with era changes, the reliance n case law becomes more irrelevant and might even be discriminatory (Anderlini, Felli & Riboni, 2008).
Case law relates well to the contemporary society particularly in events where the cases are solved in a steady method (Anderlini, Felli & Riboni, 2008). This tends to increase reliability of the court system since discrimination is eliminated and efficiency tends to be acquired based on the set facts and verdicts made in previous cases. However, despite the advantages case law also affects the society negatively as there are those that believe that every case should be judged based on its own facts without comparing to the previous ones as this might be contradicting and confusing (Anderlini, Felli & Riboni, 2008). In general case, laws are utilized as references by majority to determine the verdict of cases and certain aspects that can be utilized to solving issues effectively while protecting individual’s rights enhancing order.
References
Anderlini, L., Felli, L., & Riboni, A., (2008). Statute Law or Case Law? Leonardo Felli, London School of Economics.
Thayer, J. B. (1893). The origin and scope of the American doctrine of constitutional law. Little, Brown
Weatherill, S. (2016). Cases & materials on eu law. Oxford University Press.
