Todays law lecture was pretty interesting, from the set reading and having been a politics A-Level student bits were already known to me but one thing I learned and found quite interesting was that the press is described as the 'fourth estate' which scrutinizes the activity of the branches of government (executive, legislature and judiciary). Its a nice point to back up arguments on the existence of external restraints, as well as strong checks and balances in the public eye, on the government as there is very little separation of powers between the three branches (despite the concept of the three chambers separating power to control corruption).
The introduction to law (chapter one) highlights the importance of the concept of freedom of expression in a democratic society (thought it can be argued that the limitations of the human rights act and the laws of the European Convention make freedom of expression unachievable and a highly desirable reality). The UK's constitution is of an unwritten nature, and so the human rights act was introduced to safeguard the rights of the individual so that one can benefit form freedom of expression, rather than use it to discriminate against of harm others. In the absence of a written constitution, two constitutional bulwarks have been relied on to allow freedom of expression: jury trail and the rule against prior restraint. There are two important articles in the law which are used as a balancing tool to give people, particularly journalists, the right to freedom of expression and also the right to privacy.
This chapter also highlights divisions in the law, first being criminal law; offenses which appear to cause harm to the whole of a community or and act against the sovereign, and second civil law; organises financial matters and entitlements, as well as disputes between people, eg. divorce settlement. Both types of law can overlap.
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