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• 1 The Common Law and The Canadian Legal System

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• What is the history of Common Law?

  - Before 1066, England had a fractured legal and administrative system
  - In 1066, Harold was crowned king and tried to unite segregated law areas
  - William the conqueror killed Harold
  - Became king and appropriated all the land in England
  - Parceled land to nobles who held the land in return for "knight service"

• What is Common Law? What is stare decisis? What established common law?

  - Body of unwritten laws based on legal precedents established by courts
  -Stare decisis is the legal principle of determining litigation points according to precedent - following past decisions
  - Common law occurred because Anglo-Saxon legal system was unchanged and decisions were made on past cases which was then formalized into common law

• What was the primary source of law before Parliament acquired legislative powers to create statutory law? Who makes this law?

  - Judge-made common law

• What is the Adversarial System?

  - Legal system used in common law countries where advocates represent their case before a jury

• Who brought trial by battle?

  - The Normans

• What is the Magna Carta? What did it entail?

  - Royal charter of rights agreed by King John
  - Limits on royal authority - monarch is not above the law
  -  Protection from illegal imprisonment
  - Limitations on payments to the crown

• What does the Magna Carta have to do with the law of Canada? What is the exception?

  - English law was recieved by Canada as a British colony
  - Quebec is the exception - follows Civil Code

• What is a Federal System? Why was it adopted in Canada?

  - Power to create and enforce laws shared between provincial government and federal government
  - Created bc of administrative problems of prevailing English Law

• What is the British North American Act?

  - Created a federal system and the operation of the government of Canada including its federal structure
  - federal system is when power to create laws is split between provincial and federal governments

• What law is most relevant to Engineers? Are these laws Federal or Provincial?

  - Property and civil rights - contracts, torts, lien legislation
  - These laws are Provincial therefore there is variation between provinces