1.
LexisNexis
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LexisNexis Group is a corporation providing computer-assisted legal research as well as business research and risk management services. During the 1970s, LexisNexis pioneered the electronic accessibility of legal, as of 2006, the company has the worlds largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information. Currently a division of RELX Group, LexisNexis was first a product of the Mead Data Central company, the Anglo-Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier has owned LexisNexis and its predecessor company since 1994. At its inception in 1970, the database was named LEXIS by Mead Data Central and it was a continuation of an experiment organized by the Ohio State Bar in 1967. On April 2,1973, LEXIS launched publicly, offering full-text search in all Ohio, in 1980, LEXIS completed its hand-keyed electronic archive of all U. S. federal and state cases. The NEXIS service, added that year, gave journalists a searchable database of news articles. LexisNexis world headquarters is located in Dayton, Ohio, United States, in 1989, MDC acquired the Michie Company, a legal publisher, from Macmillan. When Toyota launched the Lexus line of vehicles in 1987. A market research survey asked consumers to identify the spoken word Lexis, survey results showed that a nominal number of people thought of the computerized legal search system, a similarly small number thought of Toyotas luxury car division. A judge ruled against Toyota, and the company appealed the decision, Mead lost on appeal in 1989 when the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit held that there was little chance of consumer confusion. Today, the two companies have a business relationship, and in 2002 implemented a joint promotion called Win a Lexus on Lexis. In December 1994, Mead sold the LexisNexis system to Reed Elsevier for $1.5 billion, on April 15,2008, the U. S. The Court reversed and remanded so that the courts could apply the correct test and determine whether Mead. In 2000, LexisNexis purchased RiskWise, a St. Cloud, in 2002 it acquired a Canadian research database company, Quicklaw. In 2004, Reed Elsevier Group, parent company of LexisNexis, purchased Seisint, Inc, from founder Michael Brauser of Boca Raton, Seisint housed and operated the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. On March 9,2005, LexisNexis announced the possible theft of information of some Seisint users. It was originally estimated that 32,000 users were affected, affected persons were provided with free fraud insurance and credit bureau reports for a year. However, no reports of identity theft or fraud were discovered to have stemmed from the security breach, in February 2008, Reed Elsevier purchased data aggregator ChoicePoint in a cash deal for US$3.6 billion
2.
English law
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English law is the common law legal system governing England and Wales, comprising criminal law and civil law. English law has no formal codification, the essence of English common law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts applying statute, and legal precedent from previous cases. A decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the highest civil court of the United Kingdom, is binding on every other court. Some rulings are derived from legislation, others, known as law, are based on rulings of previous courts. For example, murder is a common law rather than one established by an Act of Parliament. Common law can be amended or repealed by Parliament, murder, for example, the first schedule of the Interpretation Act 1978, defines the following terms, British Islands, England, and United Kingdom. The use of the term British Isles is virtually obsolete in statutes and, for interpretation purposes, England includes a number of specified elements, Wales and Berwick Act 1746, section 3 formally incorporated Wales and Berwick-upon-Tweed into England. But section 4 Welsh Language Act 1967 provided that references to England in future Acts of Parliament should no longer include Wales, but Dicey & Morris say It seems desirable to adhere to Diceys definition for reasons of convenience and especially of brevity. It would be cumbersome to have to add or Wales after England, the adjacent islands of the Isle of Wight and Anglesey are a part of England and Wales by custom, while Harman v Bolt 47 TLR219 expressly confirms that Lundy is a part of England. The adjacent territorial waters by virtue of the Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act 1878, great Britain means England, Wales, Scotland, their adjacent territorial waters and the islands of Orkney and Shetland, the Hebrides and, by virtue of the Island of Rockall Act 1972, Rockall. V Canon Film Sales Ltd.1 WLR1597 and Chloride Industrial Batteries Ltd, V F. & W. Freight Ltd.1 WLR823. British Islands – but not British Isles – means the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, compare with American convention, which includes of, as in Civil Rights Act of 1964. For example, the Pleading in English Act 1362 was referred to as 36 Edw,15, meaning 36th year of the reign of Edward III, chapter 15, though in the past this was all spelt out, together with the long title. Common law is a term with historical origins in the system of England. This may be a legacy of the Norman conquest of England, an example is the Law Merchant derived from the Pie-Powder Courts, named from a corruption of the French pieds-poudrés implying ad hoc marketplace courts. In 1276, the concept of time immemorial often applied in common law was defined as being any time before 6 July 1189, one of the major challenges in the early centuries was to produce a system that was certain in its operation and predictable in its outcomes. Too many judges were either partial or incompetent, acquiring their positions only by virtue of their rank in society, thus, a standardised procedure slowly emerged, based on a system termed stare decisis which roughly means let the decision stand. The doctrine of precedent which requires similar cases to be adjudicated in a like manner, thus, the ratio decidendi of each case will bind future cases on the same generic set of facts both horizontally and vertically in the court structure
3.
Measure of the National Assembly for Wales
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A Measure of the National Assembly for Wales is primary legislation in Wales that is a category lower than an Act of Parliament. It was a form of primary legislation as it did not contain a large bulk of powers compared to the power to make acts. In Wales each Assembly Measure had to be accompanied with a Matter which was transferred using the Legislative Competence Order system, each Assembly Measure, like an Act of Parliament, would had to have made provision for a matter within the remit of the legislative competency of the Assembly. Following a referendum held in 2011, the assembly gained powers to make primary legislation known as Acts of the Assembly and these powers came into force after the 2011 assembly elections and the assembly is no longer able to pass Measures. Existing measures will remain valid unless repealed by the assembly in the future, like Acts, Assembly Measures face the same style of scrutiny. There were around four stages where the legislation was scrutinised. Once everything above has been completed, the Assembly can then start the final scrutinising before the Assembly Measure gets passed, of course, like in other legisative systems, some laws will fail, or might end up withdrawn. Assembly Measures, like all types of legislation, will have to be approved by a head of state. After the Assembly Measure is passed by the National Assembly for Wales the Measure will have to be taken to the Queen in Council who approves the Measure via an Order in Council, the approval would later be added to the Assembly Measure as proof of the approval. The approving order in council is not approved by both Houses of Parliament like the Orders in Council conferring power to the Assembly, like in any legislature, the National Assembly for Wales members can propose Assembly Measures. Professor Thomas Glyn Watkin is the first person to be appointed to this post, some people thought that the Order-in-Council was just a way of conferring power to the Assembly so the Assembly could make more delegated legislation. However, the Act states that the Orders in Council are used only to transfer power to the Assembly. In this way, the Assembly, without having to go to Parliament, an Assembly Measure could then confer power to the Welsh ministers to make delegated legislation, or statutory instruments as guided within the Measure
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Case law
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Case law is the set of existing rulings which made new interpretations of law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents. In other countries, such as most European countries, the term is applied to any set of rulings on law which is guided by previous rulings, for example, patent office case law. Trials and hearings which are not selected as courts of first impression do not have rulings that become law, therefore. The legal systems of the Nordic countries are included among the civil law systems, but as a separate branch. In Sweden, for instance, case law plays a more important role than in some of the Continental civil law systems. The two highest courts, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, have the right to set precedent which is in practice binding on all future application of the law. Courts of appeal, both courts and administrative courts may also issue decisions that act as guides for the application of the law. In the common law tradition, courts decide the law applicable to a case by interpreting statutes and applying precedents which record how, normally, the burden rests with litigants to appeal rulings to the higher courts. If a judge acts against precedent and the case is not appealed, the decision will stand. A lower court may not rule against a binding precedent, even if it feels that it is unjust and this may happen several times as the case works its way through successive appeals. High Trees House Ltd K. B.130, the different roles of case law in civil and common law traditions create differences in the way that courts render decisions. By contrast, decisions in civil law jurisdictions are generally very short, some pluralist systems, such as Scots law in Scotland and so-called civil law jurisdictions in Quebec and Louisiana, do not precisely fit into the dual common-civil law system classifications. Such systems may have heavily influenced by the Anglo-American common law tradition, however. Because of their position between the two systems of law, these types of legal systems are sometimes referred to as mixed systems of law. Law professors in common law traditions play a smaller role in developing case law than professors in civil law traditions. Historically, common law courts relied little on legal scholarship, thus, at the turn of the twentieth century, thus common law systems are adopting one of the approaches long common in civil law jurisdictions. Judges may refer to types of persuasive authority to reach a decision in a case. Widely cited non-binding sources include legal encyclopedias such as Corpus Juris Secundum and Halsburys Laws of England, some bodies are given statutory powers to issue Guidance with persuasive authority or similar statutory effect, such as the Highway Code
5.
European Union law
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European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union. Since the founding of the Coal and Steel Community after World War II, the EU has political institutions, social and economic policies, which transcend nation-states for the purpose of cooperation and human development. According to its Court of Justice the EU represents a new order of international law. The EUs legal foundations are the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, New members may join, if they agree to play by the rules of the organisation, and old members may leave according to their own constitutional requirements. People are entitled to participate through the Parliament, and their governments in shaping the legislation the EU makes. Democratic ideals of integration for international and European nations are as old as the modern nation-state, in the Renaissance, medieval trade flourished in organisations like the Hanseatic League, stretching from English towns like Boston and London, to Frankfurt, Stockholm and Riga. These traders developed the lex mercatoria, spreading basic norms of good faith, in 1517, the Protestant Reformation triggered a hundred years of crisis and instability. This unstable settlement unravelled in the Thirty Years War, killing around a quarter of the population in central Europe. The Treaty of Westphalia 1648, which brought peace according to a system of law inspired by Hugo Grotius, is generally acknowledged as the beginning of the nation-state system. In 1693 William Penn, a Quaker from London who founded Pennsylvania in North America, argued that to prevent ongoing wars in Europe a European dyet, to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice. Brought untold sorrow to mankind, the United Nations Charter was passed in 1945, also, the Council of Europe, formed by the Treaty of London 1949, adopted a European Convention on Human Rights, overseen by a new transnational court in Strasbourg in 1950. The Treaty of Paris 1951 created the first European Coal and Steel Community, signed by France, West Germany, Belgium and its theory was simply that war would be impossibly costly if ownership and production of every countrys economy was mixed together. It established an Assembly to represent the people, a Council of Ministers for the states, a Commission as the executive. In the East, the Soviet Union had installed dictatorial governments, controlling East Germany, in the West, the decision was made through Treaty of Rome 1957 to launch the first European Economic Community. It shared the Assembly and Court with the Coal and Steel Community, a separate treaty was signed for a European Atomic Energy Community to manage nuclear production. In 1961 the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland and Norway applied for only to be vetoed in 1963 by Frances Charles de Gaulle. Spain also applied and was rejected as it was led by the Franco dictatorship. The same year, the Court of Justice proclaimed that the Community constituted a new order of international law
6.
Hardinge Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury
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Hardinge Stanley Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury, PC, KC was a leading barrister, politician and government minister. He served thrice as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, born in London, Giffard was the third son of Stanley Lees Giffard, editor of the Standard, by his wife Susanna, daughter of Francis Moran. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in literae humaniores. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1850, Giffard joined the Western, then the South Wales circuits. Afterwards he had a practice at the Central Criminal Court and the Middlesex sessions. He was engaged in most of the trials of his time, including the Overend and Gurney. He became Queens Counsel in 1865, and a bencher of the Inner Temple and he also failed to gain a seat in a by-election in Horsham in 1876. In 1877 he succeeded in obtaining a seat, when he was returned for Launceston, in 1898 he was created Earl of Halsbury and Viscount Tiverton, of Tiverton in the County of Devon. At a meeting of Conservative peers on 21 July of that year, as Halsbury left the meeting a reporter asked him what was going to happen. Halsbury immediately replied, Government by a Cabinet controlled by rank socialists, Halsbury was also President of the Royal Society of Literature, Grand Warden of English Freemasons, and High Steward of the University of Oxford. Halsburys lasting legacy was the compilation of a complete digest of Laws of England, Halsburys Laws was followed by a second multiple-volume reference work in 1929, Halsburys Statutes, and later by Halsburys Statutory Instruments. Halsbury married firstly Caroline, daughter of William Corne Humphreys, in 1852, there were no children from this marriage. Halsbury married secondly Wilhelmina, daughter of Henry Woodfall, in 1874 and he died in December 1921, aged 98, and was succeeded by his only son from his second marriage, Hardinge. The Countess of Halsbury died in December 1927, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Halsbury
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Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham
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Douglas McGarel Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham, PC was a British lawyer and Conservative politician. Born in London, Hogg was the son of the merchant and philanthropist Quintin Hogg, seventh son of Sir James Hogg and he was educated at Cheam School and Eton College, before studying sugar growing in the West Indies. After serving in the Boer War he was called to the bar by Lincolns Inn in 1902, was appointed Kings Counsel in 1917, Hogg was appointed Attorney General by Andrew Bonar Law in October 1922. Though not an MP, Hogg was chosen for the position because Bonar Law found himself short of law officers after the Conservative-Liberal coalition collapsed as a result of the Carlton Club meeting. He was elected to the House of Commons unopposed the following month for St Marylebone in the general election and he received the customary knighthood and was sworn in the Privy Council in December 1922. Serving as Attorney General until Labour assumed office after the 1923 election, Hogg was reappointed to the post, with a seat in the Cabinet, when the Conservatives were returned to power in 1924. The Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act made mass picketing and all sympathetic strikes illegal and it also forbade civil service unions from affiliating with the Trades Union Congress. In 1928, he became Lord Chancellor in Stanley Baldwins government and he served until the governments defeat in 1929. In 1929, he was created Viscount Hailsham, of Hailsham in the County of Sussex, from 1931 to 1935 he served as Secretary of State for War. He again served as Lord Chancellor from 1935 to 1938, first under Baldwin, during his second term he was the last Lord High Steward to preside over the trial of a peer in the House of Lords. In 1938, ill-health led to his appointment as Lord President of the Council, a post with less onerous duties and he died on 16 August 1950. Lord Hailsham married Elizabeth Marjoribanks, widow of Hon Archibald Marjoribanks, Hon William Neil McGarel Hogg, diplomat. Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Hailsham
Works related to Halsbury's Laws of England at Wikisource