Lesson: 7
Topic: The Development of Case and Statute Law
Objectives:
During this class students will examine the development of case law in feudal England. Students will discover how the structure of the
feudal system inspired the need for court decisions to be recorded, and then referred to, in future cases.
Students will come to understand the significance of the following events and historical figures:
- The Norman Conquest, 1066 (William the Conquerer)
- The development of the English Court System, 1100-1135 (Henry I)
- Magna Carta, 1215 (King John)
- English Parliament, 1265 (Simon de Montfort)
- British North America Act, 1867
- Statute of Westminster, 1931
- Constitution Act, 1982 (Pierre Elliot Trudeau)
Students will come to understand how modern Canadian legal practices still greatly reflect the legal
structure and process established in England hundreds of years ago.
At the conclusion of the class, students should have developed an understanding of the following principles and concepts
associated with case law:
- case law / common law
- precedence / precedent
- stare decisis
- ratio decidendi
- abstraction
Evaluation:
To assist students in exploring the issues outlined above, the class will form into groups in an effort to simulate the creation,
and abstraction, of precedents. Groups will create hypothetical disputes between the school and a student (ie. breaking a school rule).
Each dispute will then be settled in a simulated court proceeding, and each court proceeding will be run by a different group (the
group will serve as a panel of judges). As each dispute is settled, the decision, and the reasoning,
will be recorded within a precedent matrix. Students will then observe how each precedent
established poses implications for subsequent disputes and their respective decisions.
Expectations Addressed:
The "Heritage" strand of the CLN4U Ministry of Education Curriculum
Guidelines outlines all of the following specific expectations. The specific expectations
addressed by this class
have been highlighted below.
- trace the development of law from its primary sources in religion,
customs, and social and political philosophy;
- distinguish between primary and secondary sources of law (e.g.,
constitutions, statutes, court decisions; legal writings);
- explain the distinctions between common and civil law,
substantive and
procedural law, domestic and international law, and private and public law;
- compare various historical methods and systems of adjudication (e.g.,
trial by ordeal versus trial by combat, adversarial versus inquisitorial
systems).
- explain legal concepts such as democracy, justice, equity, equality,
rule of law, sovereignty, and primacy of the right;
- analyse the views of historical
and contemporary philosophers of law (e.g., Socrates, Aristotle, John Locke,
Jeremy Bentham,Thomas Hobbes, R.M. Dworkin, Henry Shue, H.L.A. Hart);
- evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses of different theories of law (e.g., natural and positive law,
legal realism, feminist law);
- explain the concept of justice
as defined by philosophers and legal scholars;
- analyse contemporary legal situations that raise the question of
conflict between what may be legally correct but is generally viewed as
unjust;
- explain the interrelation of law, morality, and religion;
- analyse how society uses law to express its values;
- analyse contemporary events and issues that demonstrate a possible
conflict between the law and societal values.
- evaluate the influence of individual citizens who have fought to change
the law (e.g., Dr. Henry Morgentaler, Dr. David Suzuki, Nelson Mandela, Sue
Rodriguez, David Lepofsky, Rosalie Abella);
- assess the role of collective action in changing the law in democracies
(e.g., activities of lobby and pressure groups, voting at the polls, citizen
petitions);
- assess the power of the individual citizen to change or modify our laws,
and determine under what circumstances individuals have a responsibility to
seek legal reform (e.g., civil rights violations, police brutality, privacy
issues).
Resources:
Text Reference:
- Chapter #2, pages 59 - 62; then pages 135 - 140 (required reading)
Handouts:
Relevant web sites:
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