English "customary" laws (the "Common Law") includes decisions of judges made according to legal "principles" for which there is no written legislation (Natural Law). European states with a Roman law heritage do not have this element as strongly in their law (Positive Law).
In Jersey, they love to pretend that they are special however, 'Norman Law' is fundamentally 'Roman Law'. How exactly English Common Law came to be adopted in Jersey as 'customary law' appears to have arisen following Magna Carta.
Yes all the rights of Magna Carta applied at some stage in Jersey, most have been superseded, some have been repealed in the UK (such as the Right to Trial by Combat) but I have personally experienced that although the Right to Trial by Combat is still extant in Jersey they will simply not allow you to exercise that right.
Natural Law in philosophy is system of right or justice held to be common to all humans and derived from nature rather than from the rules of society, or positive law. Aristotle (384–322 BC) held that what was “just by nature” was not always the same as what was “just by law”.
Fundamentally, "Natural Law" such as the Common Law or the European Convention on Human Rights overarch any law that the States might pass and any action which might be undertaken by an administrator of those laws.
Why do those in charge allow such an overarching barrier to the exercise of tyranny? It is a was of preventing rebellion...
From the text of the US Declaration of independence 1776,
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Is it a coincidence that the first right set out in Article 2 of the Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights is, "the Right to Life", and the second right set out in Article 3 is, "the Right to Liberty"?Text of the Declaration of Independence
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