ENGLISH COMMON LAW

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 5, 1 October 1943, Page 6

ENGLISH COMMON LAW

Roots In Life Of People ADDRESS BY SIR HARRY

BATTERBEE

A suggestion that a different conception of law was no doubt one of the causes of the difference of general political outlook between Britain and Germany was made by the High Commissioner lor the United Kingdom, Sir Harry Batterbee, opening the annual conference of the Federation of New Zealand Justices’ Associations, in Wellington, yesterday. English law, like English history, was a result of growth and of slow development, he said. There bad never been in England.a revolution, as there had been in some of the countries of the Continent, notably in Germany, in which native customary Jaw —the Common Law--was discarded for Roman Law. While Roman Law exalted the idea of the State as against the individual. English W had done exactly the reverse. Tins difference in tlie conception of law was no doubt one of the causes- of tlie difference of general political outlook between Britain and Germany. English Law had its roots deep down in the life ol the people and that was why. like the English monarchy and the Englisli Parliament, it had survived, modified, but continuous, through the centuries. The rule of law. to which King, Parliament, and people were equally subject, was one of the distinguishing characteristics of Brita.n and of all British countries. “Common conceptions of law, ami above all. the common inheritance ot Englisli Common Law, have been among the most powerful influences binding together not only the peonies of ad British countries. but English-speaking peoples everywhere.'’ said Sir Harry. Common ideas of law bound together the peoples of the British Commonweal*a and of the United States, lie added, referring to the extent to which judgments in the English courts were cited and were regarded as having persuasive authority in American courts, and vice versa. “Tn the years that lie ahead after the war the closest union and -understanding between the peoples of the British Commonwealth and of the United States is essential if a new world order is to lie built up on secure foundations, and in building the edifice of British-American understanding and sympathy, let us not overlook the part that law may play, said Sir Harry. . Extending a civic welcome to eonfetencc delegates, the mayor. Mr. Hislop, said that the Justices Association- helped to stimulate among members interest in the important functions they had to discharge and lielned to keen a true understanding of what the administration of justice was. “That is important, specially in these days, when there is a tendency to remove from ordinary juoicnil channels things that have always in the past gone through those channels and a tendency to regard anything as nil right so long as one can get away with it. said Mr. Hislop. The Justices Associations could help to keep alive the nelicf that there was a right and proper way.or doing things—and ft was only with tnat spirit that a nation could become great.