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INTRODUCTION TO LAW NOTES
Yasthil Beekarun ©
Unit 1: What is the Law?
Characteristics:
1. Governs human behaviour
2. Obeyed by all society
3. Enforced by state organs
4. Ignoring/Disobeying the law will result in punishment: [civil=compensation;
criminal=imprisonment]
Other Normative Systems
1. Religion
2. Individual Morality
3. Community Mores
Formal Justice
1. Rules that govern actions in court
2. Deals with procedures we follow
3. Requirements for formal justice:
● Explicit Rules
● Applied Generally
● Applied Impartially
Substantive Justice:
1. Deals with the content of the law
2. Material law
3. Substantive justice can be applied fairly in formal justice but doesn’t make the
law just.
Unit 2: Laws and Rights
1. Real right: right of ownership in material objects
E.g.: House, car
2. Personal right: right to performance:
E.g.: right to delivery or right to receive payment (claim) in a contract of sale.
3. Intellectual Property Right: right to creations of your mind
E.g.: literature
4. Personality Right: right to part of your personality
E.g.: right to physical integrity, right to reputation, right to dignity
5. Connection between law and rights:
● Law determines what contents of right are and what the powers of the holder
of the rights are.
● Law prescribes what the limits to the right are
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Unit 3: The Story of our Law
Layer 1: Roman law becomes Roman-Dutch law
● Roman Empire
● Germanic tribes invade
● Roman Catholic Church helps keep Roman law alive
● Justinian codifies Roman law
● Renaissance caused a revival of Roman law
● Spread across Europe (Netherlands)
Layer 2: Roman-Dutch law comes to the Cape:
● Roman law received in the Netherlands
● Jan van Riebeeck comes to the Cape with Dutch East India Company
● Artyckelbrief and Placataens
● Dutch jurists: Voet & De Groot
Layer 3: English law comes to the Cape
● Occupy Cape
● Sends advocates and judges to England for training
● English becomes official language
● English spreads across South Africa
Unit 4: Families of Law
Romano-Germanic
Basis: Roman law [Civil Law System]
E.g.: France, Germany, Netherlands
Anglo-American
Basis: Case Law [Common law system]
E.g.: England, America, Australia, New Zealand
Socialist:
Basis: Marxism, social economic policies
E.g.: Communist China and the former USSR
Hybrid/Mixed
Basis: Various legal systems [Roman-Dutch; English; Indigenous law]
E.g.: South Africa, Scotland, Sri Lanka
Unit 5: Divisions of Law
PUBLIC LAW: Concerned with the relationship between the state and individuals
E.g.:
1. Public International law: concerned with relations between states
2. Constitutional law: concerned with the institution of the state (how the state
is formed) and its organisation. It also governs the powers of the organs of state
(parliament)
3. Criminal law: states which acts are crimes and what the penalties are, that are
imposed by the state for the commission of these crimes.
PRIVATE LAW: Concerned with the relationship between individuals
INTRODUCTION TO LAW NOTES
Yasthil Beekarun ©
Unit 1: What is the Law?
Characteristics:
1. Governs human behaviour
2. Obeyed by all society
3. Enforced by state organs
4. Ignoring/Disobeying the law will result in punishment: [civil=compensation;
criminal=imprisonment]
Other Normative Systems
1. Religion
2. Individual Morality
3. Community Mores
Formal Justice
1. Rules that govern actions in court
2. Deals with procedures we follow
3. Requirements for formal justice:
● Explicit Rules
● Applied Generally
● Applied Impartially
Substantive Justice:
1. Deals with the content of the law
2. Material law
3. Substantive justice can be applied fairly in formal justice but doesn’t make the
law just.
Unit 2: Laws and Rights
1. Real right: right of ownership in material objects
E.g.: House, car
2. Personal right: right to performance:
E.g.: right to delivery or right to receive payment (claim) in a contract of sale.
3. Intellectual Property Right: right to creations of your mind
E.g.: literature
4. Personality Right: right to part of your personality
E.g.: right to physical integrity, right to reputation, right to dignity
5. Connection between law and rights:
● Law determines what contents of right are and what the powers of the holder
of the rights are.
● Law prescribes what the limits to the right are
, 2
Unit 3: The Story of our Law
Layer 1: Roman law becomes Roman-Dutch law
● Roman Empire
● Germanic tribes invade
● Roman Catholic Church helps keep Roman law alive
● Justinian codifies Roman law
● Renaissance caused a revival of Roman law
● Spread across Europe (Netherlands)
Layer 2: Roman-Dutch law comes to the Cape:
● Roman law received in the Netherlands
● Jan van Riebeeck comes to the Cape with Dutch East India Company
● Artyckelbrief and Placataens
● Dutch jurists: Voet & De Groot
Layer 3: English law comes to the Cape
● Occupy Cape
● Sends advocates and judges to England for training
● English becomes official language
● English spreads across South Africa
Unit 4: Families of Law
Romano-Germanic
Basis: Roman law [Civil Law System]
E.g.: France, Germany, Netherlands
Anglo-American
Basis: Case Law [Common law system]
E.g.: England, America, Australia, New Zealand
Socialist:
Basis: Marxism, social economic policies
E.g.: Communist China and the former USSR
Hybrid/Mixed
Basis: Various legal systems [Roman-Dutch; English; Indigenous law]
E.g.: South Africa, Scotland, Sri Lanka
Unit 5: Divisions of Law
PUBLIC LAW: Concerned with the relationship between the state and individuals
E.g.:
1. Public International law: concerned with relations between states
2. Constitutional law: concerned with the institution of the state (how the state
is formed) and its organisation. It also governs the powers of the organs of state
(parliament)
3. Criminal law: states which acts are crimes and what the penalties are, that are
imposed by the state for the commission of these crimes.
PRIVATE LAW: Concerned with the relationship between individuals
