Relationship between Parliament and the Courts

Описание: Part 1: Statutory Interpretation
We spoke a little bit about this in our previous video, but this is basically where courts apply the statutes to the cases that are brought before them. Generally, this means that the court decides what is meant by the words actually written in the law.
Decisions by courts about the meaning of the words in statutes form precedents that become part of the law to be followed in the future.

Part 2: Codification of common law
This is when parliament collect a whole load of common law rulings and decisions and decide to put them into statutory law, therefore making it a part of our legal code.

Part 3: Abrogation of common law
This is like codification, except the opposite result occurs. Basically, parliament take a look at the common law decisions, and decide to make laws that cancel or abolish the common law and make a new statutory law that says something different. And in the great legal game of rock, paper, scissors, statutory law beats common law.
Abrogation might occur because the parliament decided that the court’s interpretation was wrong, or it ended up being different to what the parliament intended, or they might just think it should change.

Part 4: Ability of courts to influence parliament
Courts can also influence changes in the law made by parliament through the comments judges make during court cases. For example, they may indicate in a judgment that they think a law should be changed by parliament.
This is basically judges saying “hey change this law please! It’s not working!”