Legal Method and Systems Assignment

LEGAL METHOD AND
SYSTEMS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Section A..........................................................................................................................................1
Crown Court, London, EC4M7EH.............................................................................................1
Section B.........................................................................................................................................2
Section C .........................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

SECTION A
Crown Court, London, EC4M7EH.
Wednesday 19th of October after reading the news about an alleged serial murder I
decided to visit the most famous Crown Court Centre known as The Old Bailey, which has a
captivating history over many centuries and is a popular tourist attraction. It deals with most
severe cases from London and the south of England.
On arrival at the crown court, personal belongings are controlled by security guards.
Security checks are performed to ensure that the court remains a safe environment. The trial that
I witnessed involved a white male 41 years, who is facing 29 charges including rape, four
murders sexual assault and poising drugs. Stephen Port is accused of inviting the victims to his
one bed room flat for sexual intercourse while the victims were drugged and unconscious. Four
of the young gay men that the defendant dated were found death near to the area that is living.
The cause of death was overdoses of the drug GHB. The case heard in the court was his last
victim who is Jack Taylor, a young gay man who was found death in the same circumstance as
other victims. As Stephen Port appeal not guilty to the charges, he was tried before a judge and a
jury.
The prosecution team consisted of two barrister assistant and two barristers, male, middle
age and white. One of the barrister assistant called two witnesses in total, both were police
officers. Before they arrived, in the witness desk they swear an oath, the prosecution showed a
series of 43 pictures used as a shred of evidence, questioning the location were the victims were
found and in what position as well. Once the fourth barrister finished interrogating, the trial was
to continued next day in the afternoon.
The jury consisted of 10 females and two males, variety of age and for my surprise, they
wore smart, colourful clothes. Therefore, I observed that were not non-white juries’ members.
They seem to have a peculiar interest in the case, carefully looked at the evidence and taking
notes. As they play a fundamental part to evaluate the evidence and decide what the facts are.
The judge directed the jury as to what the applicable law and the jury will then have to apply the
law to the facts found and therefore reach a verdict.
The judge that heard the case was a white male around sixty years old; he wore a wig
and a black gown with a long red sash. In the past was mandatory that judges wear a wig made
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of horse hair and gown sitting in the court. From 2008 judges hearing civil court are no longer
required to wear the traditional wig and gown, although judges heard criminal cases still wearing
a wig due to are unlikely to be recognised outside the court by the defendant and also is a
fundamental aspect of the court process.
SECTION B
Under the rule of the British constitution, the judges are the basis of any legal system,
delivering the judgements and applying the law rigorously1. The Human Rights Act 1998
increased the authority of controlling the power over the Parliament and the executive. In the
present essay the discussion is being made on the old appointments of procedures, the current
and what requirements a candidate must have to become a judge.
Over the years there has been three main criticism of the old system appointing the
judges were it was controlled by the politician, secretive and discriminatory. On the first
concern, the Lord Chancellor and the Prime Minister played a major role in this process, as they
been politicians be the authority by political factors in the selection of judges.2
On the second concern, the constitutional reform organisation Charter 88, argued that
were consulted with a small group although consulted with judges and senior barrister.3 The
procedure it was not considered fair because it was a benefit the society with good network
contacts rather than being selected by merit.
The third criticism according to a study made by Association of Women Barrister that the
old process was discriminatory. The study examined the appointments over ten years (1986-96)
and discovered that 104 judges selected 70 (67.3 per cent) came already from chambers with ex-
1
? The report by Hazel Genn, The Attractiveness of Senior Judicial Appointments to Highly Qualified
Practitioners(2008) has been published on the judicial website
at: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/News%20Release/report-sen-jud-appt.pdf.
2
? The report of the House of Lords Parliamentary Committee Relations Between the Executive, the
Judiciary and Parliament (2007) is available on Parliament’s website at: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-
office.co.uk/pa/ld200607/ldselect/idconst/151/151.pdf
3
? The consultation paper Appointments and Diversity: A Judiciary for the 21st Century (2011) can be
accessed on the website of the Ministry of Justice at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/consultations/judicial-
appointments-consultation-1911.pdf
2

members between the judges possible to be considered. 4The method in which the judges were
appointed has been reconstituted by the provision in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
The Constitution Reform Act 2005 including the arrangement of a Judicial Appointments
Commission (JAC) responsible for the new judicial method. This creation was made to end with
the principle of the separation of powers and emphasise judicial independence. The majority of
the JAC must not be judges. Part 2 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 attempt
to increase the lawyers to become judges. In the previous appointment to be qualified for
appointment as a judge was needed to have experience as a judge in more junior’s courts or
rights of audience in a court which reduced judicial appointments to barristers and solicitors.
5The required number of years’ experience has been reduced from seven to five years and ten to
seven years depending on the seniority of the judicial office, required that candidate has relevant
knowledge in law working as a law lecturer or legal adviser before becoming barristers or
solicitors, it is also applying for the legal paralegal teaching and researching law and so on, under
the section 52. Although the government lawyers are not accepted to become judges.6
According to Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission in 2014 research shows that
71 per cent of judges attended Oxford or Cambridge University and another 71 attended private
schools. The majority are white, male from a defined professional and socio-economic
background, according to Judicial Appointments Commission one of the requests is being British
citizens, and no others from Europe of another country can apply. It 2010 it has been argued that
only 20 per cent of judges were women, seven sitting in the Court of Justice of the European
Union, eight in the Court of Appeal and 21 female judges in the High Court. The first female that
becomes a judge to the House of Lords is Lady Hale, in the present Deputy President of the
Supreme Court.
4
? The 2010 report of the Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity is available
at: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Reports/advisory-panel-judicial-diversity-2010.pdf
5
? The website of the Judicial Appointments Commission is available
at: http://www.judicialappointments.gov.uk/index.html
6
? The consultation paper Constitutional Reform: A New Way of Appointing Judges (2003) is available
at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/jacommission/index.html
3

The system in that are appointed judges improved after the reforms introduced by the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005, there still have some weakness in those reforms. The Crime and
Courts Act 2013 reforms made changes increasing the diversity and reducing the role of the Lord
Chancellor who as considered with too many functions. More opportunities have been made for
the “under-represented “background if the candidates are equal of merit. DuriA different
approach has been addressed by Lord Chancellor in 2006 his desire was to deliver diversity for
women, black and ethnic minority judges. The purpose is to offer and transparent process on
merit and encourage and supports a diverse judiciary. Flexible hours have been establishing to
attract higher diverse of people to a judicial career. The process made by the Judicial
Appointments Commissions have failed in creating diversity, and in 2008 seven of the solicitors
who applied for the High Court judges none was appointed but the ethnic minority used 13
percent, and 8 percent were appointed.7 However, the statists showed increase women and ethnic
minority judicial appointment; the research carried out by Dame Hazel Gennn.
Hence, it can be concluded that the British Legal system has undergone a large extent of
variation over the years. The judicial system of the nation is the fundamental element of the
society and an extremely vital role is played by the judges who govern the justice system. In a
nation independence of parliament, judiciary and executive is considered to be highly necessary,
and on a similar note it is imperative to determine the procedure of appointment of judges.
Though the nations appointment procedure was criticized for many years for being highly
discriminatory. These criticisms were finally addressed by the Constitutional Reform Act, 2005
which formulated the Judicial Appointment Commission. The primary focus of the act was to
ensure judicial independence as well as abide by the principle of separation of powers. In
pursuance to the reforms the senior lawyers are encouraged for being appointed as the judge, as
well as the personnel with long relevant experience are also preferred to be appointed as judges.
Some of the significant amendments which have been introduced are that the number of years
experience required in case of judicial officers or advisers have been reduced from 7 to 5 and 10
to 7. in accordance to research the judges being finally appointed are primarily from either
Oxford or Cambridge background, as well as have been observed to be males whites. Hence, it
7
? General information on the judiciary is available on: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk
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would not be wrong to say that in spite of high level of development the judiciary is still hesitant
is promoting females and non-white population for higher posts.
SECTION C
After visiting the court I am appraised with varied information in respect to practical
working of the court, and is completely contrary to my vision about the judicial system of the
country. In accordance to me, though the English Judicial system has undergone drastic
amendment over the years in respect to the changes, but it is still facing the issue of being
conservative, racial and traditional is certain ways. Some of the procedures which highlight these
traits are the procedure of appointment of judges for the English Court, which in my opinion, is
highly influenced by the racial opinion and discrimination on the basis of gender. To evidence
the same it can be observed that the majority of the judges present in the English legal system are
white and are male. With certain level of advancement in the society and the up gradation in the
level of thinking the representation of the females have been observed to increase to 20 percent.
However, on analyzing the overall scenario it can be concluded that there is large portion of
female population which is still untapped.
However, to a complete shock, when I visited the Crown Court, Old Bailey this
conservative image of the judicial system underwent a major transformation. One of the
impressive practice followed at the court was that all the personal belongings of the visitors were
kept outside the court, under close supervision of security guards. The rationale behind adoption
of this practice was maintenance of a secured environment within the court. After entering the
court I was appraised with the case which was being tried at that point in time. Followed by
which I noticed the Jury who was present in the court to hear the case. This was another shock
for me, as the jury consisted of 10 female members and 2 male members, who were all very
smartly dressed. I was very delighted to realize the fact such an open minded approach is
followed at this level of the court system, which is completely against being conservative.
Though the ongoing case involved all white parties , the jury members were all non-black
members which was an additional impressive point for me. During the proceeding I was further
appraised with the fact that the jury was highly attentive during the whole process and showed a
high interest throughout. A very cordial relation was shared between the judge and the jury, in
spite of the judge being a white. Hence, I have started to question my opinion about the
conservative nature of the judicial system, and have also realized that whatever may be the
5

approach of the legislators while formulating the laws, the distinction between white blacks in
the real world has blurred to a large extent. One more amendment which I learnt from visiting
the court was that after introduction of 2008 reforms, the judges are no more required to wear the
white coloured wig made out of horse hair as well as the gown which was a mandate in the
earlier times.
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REFERENCES
Online
General information on the judiciary is available on: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk
The 2010 report of the Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity is available
at: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Reports/advisory-panel-
judicial-diversity-2010.pdf
The consultation paper Appointments and Diversity: A Judiciary for the 21st Century (2011) can
be accessed on the website of the Ministry of Justice
at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/consultations/judicial-appointments-consultation-
1911.pdf
The consultation paper Constitutional Reform: A New Way of Appointing Judges (2003) is
available at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dca.gov.uk/consult/
jacommission/index.htm
The report by Hazel Genn, The Attractiveness of Senior Judicial Appointments to Highly
Qualified Practitioners(2008) has been published on the judicial website
at: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/News%20Release/report-sen-
jud-appt.pdf
The report of the House of Lords Parliamentary Committee Relations Between the Executive, the
Judiciary and Parliament (2007) is available on Parliament’s website
at: http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld200607/ldselect/idconst/
151/151.pdf
The website of the Judicial Appointments Commission is available
at: http://www.judicialappointments.gov.uk/index.html
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