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Legal Systems And Methods Exam Question Paper

Legal Systems And Methods Exam

Course:Bachelor Of Law

Institution: Kenyatta University question papers

Exam Year:2010

QUESTION 1(compulsory)
"The 2010 Constitution entrenches a legal system known as the common law."
Do you ratify the above position? State the reasons for your answer. (30 marks)

QUESTION 2
Hans Kelsen thus explained his influential 'basic norm' theory:
"Tracing the various norms of a legal system back to a basic norm is a matter of showing that a particular norm was created in accordance with the basic norm. For example, one may ask why a certain coercive act is a legal act and thus belongs to a certain legal system-the legal act of incarceration, say, whereby one human being deprives another of liberty. The answer is that this act was prescribed by a certain individual norm, a judicial decision. Suppose one asks further why this individual norm is valid, indeed, why it is valid as a component of a certain legal system. The answer is that this individual norm was issued in accordance with the criminal code. And if one asks about the basis of the validity if the criminal code, one arrives at the state constitution, according to whose provisions the criminal code was enacted by the component authorities in a constitutionally prescribed procedure." Hans Kelsen 'Introduction to the problems of legal theory.' Clarendon Press. Oxford 1992. (Translated by Bonnie Litschewski Paulson) P.57.
What, in your considered opinion, is the 'basic norm' in Kenya's new constitutional order and what is the hierarchy of the valid sources of law under the same regime? Explain your answer. (20 marks)

QUESTION 3
To what extent is the system of courts under Kenya's 2010 Constitution different from that in the earlier constitutional dispensation? Support your answer with the aid of relevant authorities.
(20marks)

QUESTION 4
Write brief and succinct notes on the following:
(i) The doctrine of stare decisis (10marks)
(ii) Legal education and training in Kenya (10marks)

QUESTION 5
Discuss any three rules of statutory interpretation in the common law. (20marks)

Legal Systems And Methods Exam Question Paper

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