Question

The court hears a discrimination case in which they are asked to decide whether local anti-discrimination laws protect against a person being fired because they have red hair. The court holds that since Irish people are more likely to have red hair, this is an example of national origin discrimination and anti-discrimination laws should apply. The legislature, following the court ruling, passes a statute saying hair color is not covered by anti-discrimination laws. The legislature’s action is an example of:

Answer 1

Answer:

The legislature's action is an example of: Revoking common law by new statutory law

Explanation:

First of all, we need to understand what is the difference between a common-law and statutory law.

Common-law: This is based on decisions made previously at court, they have judicial precedent, so when there are similar cases the judges base their decision on these precedents.

Statutory law: This is a formal type of law, given it passed the house of parliament or Congress. The statutory laws are written and they regulate the behavior of citizens. There are many examples of statutory laws: tax laws, traffic regulations, etc.

According to the definitions above, the statutory law is stronger than a common law because the statutory law can modify the common law, just as in the provided example: The legislature, following the court ruling, passes a statute saying hair color is not covered by anti-discrimination laws.

Despite the common law is based on prior decisions taken at court (precedents), these are not approved by the parliament or congress, unlike the statutory law.