chpt 1

a body of rules that regulates the conducts of members of society & is recognized & enforced by the gov't

• -not officially recognized by the gov't as laws applying to all members of society
• -violation does not involve a penalty or other legal consequence imposed by the gov't

tells us what our rights, privileges, obligations, determeins structure of gov't, assigns duties & powers to various brances, tells us how & by whom the laws are made

a law making law is the Constitution Act 1867 Formerly known as B.N.A. Act 1867

make law on various subjects between the federal parliament and provincial legistlatures

• public-constitutional law, criminal law, and administrative law
• private-contract law, property law and tort law

• substantive law-describes our right and duties
• procedural law-how substantive law is enforced

criminal law-prohibits certain forms of conduct from which society has a right to be protected

• -whether the accused has a jury trial or not
• -rules must be followed when an arrest is made

legistlative law, between federal parliament and provincial legislatures.

statute law always (with 1 exception) has priority over case law= conflict between a court decidsion and statue, statute will over rule court decisions.

relates to cases where the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies

• codify the case law=principles of law that are contained in a number of of cases are put into one statute
• clarify an area that is left unclear by case law
• modern topics that have never been dealt with in case law

judges-law making function

• contain general rules, ?'s on how general rules apply to specific situations
• statute seems straight forward but may interpret another meaning