General Legal Framework
What this area tests
General legal framework questions reward candidates who can classify a legal concept quickly and then apply a precise rule. You must be comfortable with the sources of law (common law, equity, statute, delegated legislation, and - for ACCA LW - the role of case law and precedent), the court hierarchy and appeal routes, the doctrine of precedent including ratio decidendi and obiter dicta, statutory interpretation (literal, golden, mischief and purposive rules), and the elements of a valid contract: offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relations, and capacity.
Traps that appear in questions
- Offer vs invitation to treat. Display of goods, advertisements and auctions are generally invitations to treat; a counter-offer kills the original offer (the classic "battle of forms" point).
- Consideration must move from the promisee and past consideration is generally no consideration, but part-payment of a debt is good consideration only where practical benefit is shown.
- Precedent confusion. Only the ratio binds; obiter is persuasive. Distinguish overruling (higher court later) from reversing (same case on appeal) and distinguishing (different facts).
- Delegated legislation is valid only within the enabling Act; ultra vires provisions are void.
Worked example / rule of thumb
Rule of thumb: identify the source of the rule first, then the court level. Example: a question states that a lower court refused to follow a higher court's earlier decision on identical facts. The correct analysis is that the higher court's ratio decidendi is binding; the lower court may only avoid it by distinguishing the material facts, not by disagreeing with the reasoning. If the lower court instead applied a statutory provision, the statute prevails over case law.