Common law
Common law refers to law and the corresponding legal system developed through decisions of courts and similar tribunals (called ca law), rather than through legislative statutes or executive action.
Common law is law created and refined by judges: a decision in a currently pending legal ca depends on decisions in previous cas and affects the law to be applied in future cas. When there is no authoritative statement of the law, judges have the authority and duty to make law by creating precedent.
The body of precedent is called "common law" and it binds future decisions. In future cas, when parties disagree on what the law is, an idealized common law court looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is bound to follow the reasoning ud in the prior decision (this principle is known as stare decisis). If, however, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cas, it will decid
e as a "matter of first impression." Thereafter, the new decision becomes precedent, and will bind future courts under the principle of stare decisis.
In practice, common law systems are considerably more complicated than the idealized system described above. The decisions of a court are binding only in a particular jurisdiction, and even within a given jurisdiction, some courts have more power than others. For example, in most jurisdictions, decisions by appellate courts are binding on lower courts in the same jurisdiction and on future decisions of the same appellate court, but decisions of non-appellate courts are only non-binding persuasive authority. Interactions between common law, constitutional law, statutory law and regulatory law also give ri to considerable complexity. However stare decisis, the principle that similar cas should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that they will reach similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems.
Common law legal systems are in widespread u, particularly in tho nations wh
ich trace their legal heritage to Britain, including the United Kingdom, most of the United States, and other former colonies of the British Empire such as India,[2] Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong.[3]
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order, whereby a party is required to do, or to refrain from doing, certain acts. The party that fails to adhere to the injunction faces civil or criminal penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions for failing to follow the court's order. In some cas, breaches of injunctions are considered rious criminal offences that merit arrest and possible prison ntences.
Misreprentation
Misreprentation is a contract law concept. It means a fal statement of fact made by one party to another party, which has the effect of inducing that party into
the contract. For example, under certain circumstances, fal statements or promis made by a ller of goods regarding the quality or nature of the product that the ller has may constitute misreprentation. A finding of misreprentation allows for a remedy of rescission and sometimes damages depending on the type of misreprentation.
Estoppel
Estoppel is a legal doctrine at common law, where a party is barred from claiming or denying an argument on an equitable ground. Estoppel complements the requirement of consideration in contract law. In general, estoppel protects an aggrieved party, if the counter-party induced an expectation from the aggrieved party, and the aggrieved party reasonably relied on the expectation and would suffer detriment if the expectation is not met.
Also, unconscionability by a breaching party is also sufficient to estop the breaching party.
Estoppel is a defen that prevents a reprentor from enforcing legal rights, or from relying on a t of facts that would give ri to enforceable rights (e.g. words said or actions performed), generally only if that enforcement or reliance would be unfair to the reprentee. Becau its effect is to defeat generally enforceable legal rights, the scope of the remedy is often limited. Note, however, that proprietary estoppel (applicable in English land law) can be both a sword and a shield and the scope of its remedy is wide.
For an example of estoppel, consider the ca of a debtor and a creditor. The creditor might unofficially inform the debtor that the creditor forgives the debt. Even if such forgiveness is not formally documented, the creditor may be estopped from changing its mind and eking to collect the debt, becau that change would be unfair. In the same way, a landlord might inform a tenant that rent has been reduced, for example, if there was construction or a lap in utility rvices. If the tenant relies on this notice, the landlord could be estopped from collecting the full rent.
Estoppel is cloly related to the doctrines of waiver, variation, and election and is applied in many areas of law, including insurance, banking, employment, international trade, etc. In English law, the concept of legitimate expectation in the realm of administrative law and judicial review is estoppel's counterpart in public law, although subtle but important differences exist.
