[stinkytaco]

You seem to somewhat contradict yourself here. On one had you speak of overriding parliamentary authority, on the other of Parliament steering away from "complex and various sources of law".

But your focus on advocates bring the law to the judges attention seems to support the parent comment, judges "discover" the law. Certainly statute overrides all, but the point of common law is that the statute is always insufficient. It is not enough to deal with the facts of any given case. I don't know much about the UK legal system, but in the US rulings on statute become codified as "precedent". Important and relevant decisions are published, circulated, cataloged, studied and effectively become the law. Any case that is litigated starts with a series of briefs on what the parties feel is relevant case law. It also might include briefs filed by interested parties, studies of the legislative process to determine intent and so on. That is all very much in the realm of "discovery".