The ideas the common law runs on — precedent, fairness, proof, and the architecture of public power — explained in plain language, with the Canadian angle on each.
Government by law, not by whim: everyone — including the state — is bound by rules made and applied in the open.
Law built case by case: judges decide disputes, give reasons, and those reasons become law for the next case.
The law of conscience: a parallel body of doctrine built to soften the common law's rigidity, now fused with it.
The parties fight; the judge referees. Truth is expected to emerge from contest, not from official investigation.
A court's authority to decide — over this subject, this person, this place. Without it, nothing a court does counts.
Like cases alike: courts follow their own past decisions and are bound by the courts above them.
Only the reasoning necessary to the result binds later courts; everything else a judgment says is persuasive at most.
Some decisions must be followed; others may be — depending on the court, the place, and the quality of the reasoning.
What the words of a statute mean, read in context and in light of what the legislature was trying to do.
The legislature can make or unmake any law, and no court may set its statutes aside.
A higher law above the legislature: any statute inconsistent with the constitution is invalid, and courts say so.
Legislature, executive, judiciary: power divided by function, so no one branch holds it all.
Two constitutionally protected levels of government, each supreme in its own sphere — with courts refereeing the line.
Courts checking the other branches: reviewing government action — and, in some systems, legislation itself — for legality.
Judges who cannot be fired, docked, or leaned on for their decisions — the precondition for everything courts do.
A guilty act and a guilty mind: crime requires both what was done and the mental state behind it.
Innocent until proven guilty: the accused proves nothing, and doubt is resolved in their favour.
Who must prove it, and how convincingly: beyond a reasonable doubt for crime, the balance of probabilities for civil claims.
'Produce the body': the ancient writ that forces any jailer to justify a detention before a judge — or release the prisoner.
These entries are educational reference, not legal advice — and deliberately shallow: each concept fills volumes. For terminology, see the glossary.