Alexandria University

Faculty of Law, 1st Year

English Department

A Research ch Article
Legal English & Legal Terminology
 Preamble
In this humble study we will discuss the Legal profession in Britain and the Branches of
Public Law ...

1. The Legal Professions in Britain

Introduction:
Any system of law has a very close relationship with the experts who operate it. The
judges who interpret the law, the advocates who present cases in the court, the counselors
who advise clients as to their effect and those who expound it by writing and teaching it.
The emergence of common law of Britain was more or less coincident with the appearance
of professional judges, who were soon followed by practitioners and its refinement as a
body of rational principles in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was chiefly the
accomplishment of the elite body of judges and advocates who belonged to the order of
sergeants at law; a body which, in over six centuries of history numbered less than one
thousand members, about the same as the number of the Queen’s counsel in the present day.
The Modern Legal Profession: 

As the seventeenth century approached, various developments took place in the legal
profession. Now the attorneys were looked down upon by the barristers. They were
considered as glorified clerks. That was because, now they were technically a part of the
clerical staff of the court. The attorney came into direct contact with the client and referred
the barrister when difficulties arose. Thus, attorneys in this way, did most of the
straightforward conveyancing and drafting of pleas while the barristers acted as consulting
experts.

In fact, the attorney was like a client to the barrister, while the layman first engaged with
the attorney. The barrister asserted his superiority by declining to sue for his fees (the rule
appears in 1629-1630) while the attorneys continued to do so. Now, during this time many
students of the inns of the court, discussed earlier, specialized to become ‘pleaders’, ‘equity
draftsmen’ and ‘conveyancers’.

Until the eighteenth century, an interesting suggestion has been made by Sir Fredrick
Pollock about the development of the profession in the eighteenth century. According to
him it was the fact that Roman Catholics were prevented from practicing in the Bar because
of the Test Act. Thus, instead of becoming barristers they became pleaders and
conveyancers.
 Recent Developments relating to regulation of the Legal
Profession in Britain: 
Britain has two separate branches of its legal profession: barristers and solicitors. Both
groups tend to do the same type of work; focused mainly around advocacy in court,
paperwork, and advising clients but while a barrister's workload is more heavily geared
towards acting as a representative of their client in court, a solicitor will usually spend more
of their time in the office.

What do barristers do?  

Barristers are the lawyers typically characterized in British television shows because their
work strikes producers as more interesting and sexier than solicitors. In certain courts,
barristers will wear the traditional wigs and gowns that you are no doubt familiar with.
There are around 15,000 barristers working today.

They are hired to represent defendants and plaintiffs in higher courts such as the Crown
Court and the Supreme Court.  They are usually self-employed and have to take work based
on the "taxi rank" principle, i.e. they take the first job that comes up.

It takes a considerable amount of time and effort to become a barrister as you have to follow
the traditions of one of the Inns of Court to join. There are four Inns of Court and every
barrister is a member of the Bar Council.  Many people believe that barristers are highly-
paid "fat cats" (rich, fat gentlemen) where the reality is somewhat different, with 60% of
barristers earning around the average wage of the UK.

What do solicitors do?

There are estimated to be around 170,000 solicitors practicing within the United Kingdom.
The profession has tripled in size in the last thirty years and politicians have argued that
there are too many. They are needed, however.
 
Solicitors are a person's first point of contact with a lawyer; so if you wish to buy a house,
have a death in the family or are in trouble with the police then you will visit your local
solicitor. Every town and city in the UK has law firms with teams of solicitors.  If the firm
is small, a solicitor might work in several fields, but larger firms are split into departments.  

Solicitors have typically only been permitted to attend certain courts such as the
Magistrate's Court and County Court. This rule is changing as more solicitors are gaining
the right to speak in higher courts.  
How do they work together?  
Solicitors and barristers can work together in several ways. Let's say that you have visited
your local solicitor for help with a legal issue of some sort. The solicitor might have the
knowledge and resources to advise you, but if the case is complex then he will need a
second opinion. In this instance, he might request that a barrister provide him with written
legal advice to confirm the law on the matter.

Barristers and solicitors frequently work together on court cases. Take criminal law, for
example. If your client commits fraud, the police will interview him with his solicitor
present. The solicitor will advise, write letters, attend lower courts and generally manage
the case. When it comes to the trial, help will probably be needed from an expert barrister.
This will be someone who has worked in fraud trials for many years and who is a skilled
advocate.

With the increasing number of barristers working inside multinational companies and
solicitors acting as advocates in higher courts, there is less of a distinction between the two
professions. However, consensus seems to be that the UK is still a long way off from
having one universal legal profession as the two tiers seem to work well together.
REFERENCES:
[i] Penny Derbyshire, The English Legal System, 8th ed. Ch 13.

[ii] J H Baker, An introduction to English Legal History, 4th ed. Ch 10.

[iii] Herbert M. Kritzer, Legal Systems of the World Vol. 2, p. 475.

[iv] Brand MCL, p. 135

[v] Theodore Frank Thomas Plucknett, A concise history of the common law (1956), Ch 12,
p. 216

[vi] An essoiner was employed to make formal excuses for non appearance in court. In the
14th Century

[vii] this function was absorbed in that of the attorney.

[viii] J H Baker, An introduction to English Legal History, 4th ed. Ch 10.

[ix] Statute of Westminster 1, c, 29.

[x] Study of names of the pleaders in the records and yearbooks of Edward 1’s reign.
[xi] Coke, in the 17th Century said it was the distinction between officium ingenii and
officium laboris: Co. Inst., vol. 2, p. 514.

2. Branches of Public Law

Public Law
Public law is that area of constitutional, administrative, criminal, and International
Law that focuses on the organization of the government, the relations between the state and 
its citizens, the responsibilities of government officials, and the relations between sister stat
es. It is concerned with political matters, including the powers, rights, capacities, and duties 
of various levels of government and government officials.
Public law refers to an act that applies to the public at large, as opposed to a private law t
hat concerns private individual rights, duties, and liabilities.

Most people study law without actually understanding it. They are after passing the
exams and forgetting the main purpose of taking the course in the first place. This is the
worst mistake you can make as it is the way poor attorneys are made. This law involves the
relationship between the government and the citizens. In the UK, the law constitutes three
major areas which are:

Administrative Law
This branch of public law involves the functions of the government and its roles to the
citizens. Some of the roles involve the arrangement of the pension schemes and child
benefits just to mention a few. Conflicts are likely to emerge from these systems, and this
law is meant to help in solving such issues.

Criminal Law
Some wrongdoings are a threat to the community. Such doings are considered as a
violation to the society. The criminal law ensures that the wrongdoers are penalized and
punished accordingly. The key objective of this type of law is protecting the citizens’ rights
and making sure they are safe. The government is responsible for recognition and
prosecution of the offenders, and that is how it is related to the citizens.

Constitutional Law
It is concerned with the areas involving the constitution of the state. This involves the
structure and the branches of the government, the head of the state and the division between
private and public law. The law guards and ensures that every rule is followed without
violation.

Environmental law
These are laws , regulations, norms and widely accepted rules that protect and decide how
people have to deal with their eco system, and the goal of the law is to safeguard the
environment, and to establish specific laws regulating the use of environmental assets by
people. Therefore there are ecological protections in order to evaluate who could use natural
materials under some circumstances.

International Law
It is a set of conditional laws and agreements between international organizations. They are
responsible and must be applied when sovereign countries sign an agreement which is
called international law. States then sit down specific rules of conviction that their people
would profit through it. International law recommends for peace , justice and common
interests. The regulatory and accreditation to states, it is followed by states and it maintains
the laws and also refers to nationals and people living in the country.