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Canada’s legal system. Chapter 11 SS11. Laws. Laws influence almost everything we do in our daily lives. Laws regulate business conducts, trade, immigration, and government.
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Canada’s legal system Chapter 11 SS11
Laws • Laws influence almost everything we do in our daily lives. • Laws regulate business conducts, trade, immigration, and government. • Laws spell out the rights, privileges, and powers we enjoy as citizens and balance them with the duties expected of us. • Canadian laws reflect the values that we hold in common. As a society, we choose to have laws to protect children, workers on the job, the aged, and minorities. • We have the right to oppose laws that we feel are unjust and to work to change the law by legal means. • Laws have to be made, enforced, and applied.
the rule of law • We are governed by a fixed set of lows that apply to all people equally, regardless of their position in society. • Great symbol of the rule of law is the Magna Carta, 1215 signed by King John of England.
Main categories of Law • CIVIL LAW: deals with relationships between individuals or groups. • CRIMINAL LAW: deals with matters that affect society as a whole. Criminal acts are considered to be committed against the state, not just against individual victims.
Civil law • Usually involves a dispute over contracts, property, or personal relationships. • Property; physical (possessions), intellectual (ideas), or creative (artwork). • Examples: property damage, accident victim compensation, child custody. • Plaintiff: person who claims to have suffered harm, loss, or injury to self or property. • Defendant: alleged wrongdoer.
Criminal law • Breaking a criminal law is considered to be a wrong against Canadian society. • Criminal cases are carried out in the name of the Crown (R = Regina = Latin for Queen) • Prosecution: Lawyers rep the Crown. • Defence: representing the accused person. • Only the federal government can make criminal laws, provincial governments help administer them.
Canada’s Legal Tradition • Quebec civil law based on Code Napoleon. • Common Law: based on the decisions of judges in the British royal courts. It system is based on past decisions, or precedents. • Statutory law: set out in acts of Parliament .
Now what? • Read 270-275 • Do worksheet: Canadian Law Review/ Canadian Criminal Justice System/ Canadian Civil Justice System. • Questions pages 273 # 2 & 3a/ 275 # 1/2a/3.