Once Parliament has passed a legislation
Once Parliament has passed a legislation, it is the judiciary’s responsibility to make sense of the provisions in statutes. That is to interpret and apply the meaning of the words used as interpretation of statutes. However, there are arguments that judges tend to take over the roles of Parliament in law-making which will later be discussed further.
Laws created through judicial opinion stand in contradiction to laws created in statutes. Case law has the same legally binding effect as statutory law, but there are fundamental differences between them. Case laws are written by judges in response to a specific case in court, not by elected lawmakers. In which Jonathan Sumption QC implied that it is in danger of trespassing on “the proper function of government” . In other words, a judicial opinion can constitute the law on certain issues within a certain jurisdiction. It provides legal authority in cases that are not covered by statutes. Since statutes are written in broad terms and does not cover every possible situation, judges must interpret the language of relevant statutes in accordance to the facts of the case at hand. For example, there is no Act of Parliament stating that murder is a crime, it is a common law crime which has been refined over the centuries in courts.
