SOC 3740 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Superior Court, Jury Trial, Judicial Independence
2 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Three features are common to governments: leaders, laws, and judges. Once a society reaches a certain degree of complexity, it needs an institutional means for resolving the kinds of disputes that might otherwise threaten the stability of the social order. Because commerce requires a stable and predictable system of enforceable rules, the judge made law that had developed was eventually codified to clarify it. After the fall of the roman empire, these codes were gradually incorporated into the laws of many. English common law or judge made law common to the whole land remained an important ingredient of the law, in contrast to civil law tradition on the continent, where judicial precedent played a less central role. Quebec has inherited the french civil law approach with regard to its private law system, but it a common jurisdiction regarding public law. The structure of canadian courts is rooted in the english court system.
