Text 14 Common Law Countries

Because of our colonial history we had a common law legal system strongly influenced in its structure and functioning by that of the colonial power which had been England. There was a unitary court system in which there was a Supreme Court, consisting of an Appellate Division, which was the highest court, and Provincial and

Local Divisions which functioned as superior courts of first instance.3 Statutes were superior to the common law, but there were only a few general codes4 and much of the law was made and developed by judges on the basis of precedent. Decisions of the Appellate Division were binding on all other courts. The Appellate Division followed its own decisions unless it was satisfied that an earlier decision was “clearly wrong”. Parliament was supreme and could pass laws to vary court decisions with which it disagreed.

Countries which had formerly been part of the British Empire had similar court systems, adapted where necessary to deal with federal issues. Invariably in these Commonwealth countries, which differed in this respect from the United States where the jurisdiction of the US Supreme Court is more restricted because of its particular federal structure, there is a single highest court which is a court of general jurisdiction with the competence to deal with all law whether it be common law, state law or federal law. I will call this model the Supreme Court model. There is not a career judiciary. Instead, Judges are usually appointed to the superior courts from the practicing legal profession. Appeal courts are usually, though not invariably, staffed by judges promoted from superior courts of first instance, and where there is a three tier system, from judges of appeal. The Supreme Courts had a general jurisdiction, and in those countries where constitutions with entrenched rights were later adopted as the supreme law, their jurisdiction included the judicial review of legislative action and the conduct of organs of the state.

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