Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 4 June 1964.
Mr Christopher Woodhouse
, Oxford
12:00,
4 June 1964
In so far as my hon. Friend's Question affects Scottish law, I must refer him to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland. With great respect to my hon. Friend, I am unable to see how it can bring English law into disrepute if foreign minors marry in Scotland.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
