Legal Competence in Environmental Health

	1
Sources of law

The aim of this book is to assist Environmental Health Officers to understand the operation of English law and to navigate through some of its complexities. To do this it is first necessary to examine the basic elements and thus establish an understanding of the origins and sources of English law. There is no single source for all of the laws to be found in this country, however the main sources of law are here taken to be:

• Legislation
• Judicial precedent
• European law

It is accepted that Custom is often and correctly quoted as an additional source of law, however for those engaged in the Environmental Health profession it is not a significant source and is of limited importance. It will thus not be considered further ...