PO210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Public Law, Superior Court, Atavism
Document Summary
The word law can apply to many different things. It can refer to a system that governs human activities through threat of punishment in an organized society by the government. It can also refer to the documents behind the law, the legislation (federal and provincial), including proclamations, regulations or orders, the constitution, judicial decisions, and legal principles that form the law. It can refer to a subspecialty of a type of practice ex: personal injury law. What is written and established is what should be applied. (black-letter law). Language is key, law must be expressed clearly. Parliamentary supremacy, no person or entity that"s above the law. Individuals believe the process behind the law is more important than the law: judicial (legal) realism: states that the judges are the most important element of the case. Cannot look at the law mechanically, have to look at all the situations surrounding it as well.