The Judicial System of UK - Doc

THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
UK’s Court Structure and Jurisdiction of each court.............................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
Functions of the civil and criminal courts..............................................................................2
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
Grounds and routes for appeal in civil and criminal courts....................................................3
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................4
Roles and functions of the legal personnel and arguments for the fusion of the legal profession
................................................................................................................................................4
Roles and functions that lay people and its contribution to the judicial process....................5
TASK 5............................................................................................................................................5
Alternative methods for settlement of legal disputes.............................................................5
Advantages and disadvantages for using such methods.........................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Judicial system consists of rules, regulations and institutions that are responsible for the
legal security and rule of law for public. It administers the justice and constitute judicial
department of the government (Frank and Bix, 2017). This report is based on Judicial System of
UK. It covers the structure and prime disciplines of a country's judicial system. It also includes
various grounds and routes in which a person must make an appeal in civil and criminal courts.
Further, it covers the appeal process and alternative dispute resolutions. It also includes the role
of amateur people in jurisdiction process. Lastly, it covers the alternative methods for settling the
legal disputes with describing its major advantages and disadvantages.
TASK 1
UK’s Court Structure and Jurisdiction of each court
In United Kingdom, there are three different unified legal systems that are related to
Scotland, England and Wales and third one is in Northern Ireland. There are many courts at each
level.
In this context, hierarchy of the UK court’s structure is defined as below:
Supreme Court – In Wales, Northern Ireland and England, there is the highest court that is
House of Lords that convert in Supreme Court in 2009. Its jurisdiction process starts through
appeal in this court (Ginsburg, 2016). A person can appeal in it if he or she is not satisfied with
the High Court. It is the final place for getting judgement and each party should follow the
decisions given in this court. It has two major divisions that are criminal and civil.
High Court – It contains three major divisions that are Family Division, Chancery Division and
the Queen's Bench Division. The core jurisdiction of this court may be appealed to the Civil
Division of the Court of Appeal.
Its divisions are described below:
Chancery Division: It has been classified into three different courts. For Companies Court – It applies for businesses, organisations and companies that deal
with those cases that are concerned with insolvency, commercial fraud, disputes in
businesses, disqualification of directors and company’s management. For Divisional Court – The Divisional Court deals with some legal proceedings like trust,
equity, tax partnerships, bankruptcy and contentious probate (Howard 2014).
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 For Patents Court – It deals with copyright, various intellectual property rights,
trademarks, patents and passing-off.
Family Division: This type of Divisional Court deals with all types of matrimonial
matters including adoption, custody of children, family homes, domestic violence, divorce,
medical treatment declarations and annulment. It also conducts the judgement of uncontested
probate matters.
Queen's Bench Division: This divides in different five courts. For Admiralty Court – It hears statutory appeals & applications, judicial reviews,
application for habeas corpus under Drug Trafficking Act 1984. For Administrative Court – It deals with shipping and maritime disputes, for example:
limitations, mortgage disputes, salvage and carriage of cargo. It can arrest cargoes and
vessels within the jurisdiction of Wales and England (Jain, 2017). For Mercantile Court – It deals with t national and international business disputes that
claims complexity and lesser value cases which are heard by the Judges of Commercial
Court. For Commercial Court – It concerns with national and international organisational
disputes that cover banking, international trade, arbitration and commodities disputes.
 For Construction and Technology Court – It is a special Bench that concerns with
construction and technology disputes that include technical issues (Landis, 2017).
Crown Court – It deals with several indictable criminal cases such as rape, murder and robbery.
It also hears serious criminal cases and sent it for further appeals.
County Court – This Court deals with all cases excluding the simplest and complicated civil
cases such as breach of contract, personal injury, family issues and repayment of debts.
TASK 2
Functions of the civil and criminal courts
Civil courts: This deals with private controversies and disputes that arises among public, private
institutions and several organisations. It seems that public is not ordinarily a party to the
litigation ans its interest is limited to providing acceptable rules for making better decisions (Li,
2016). It handles those legal disputes which are not under crimes.
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Functions of Civil Courts: The main function is to provide better solutions to all cases that may
arise among people and it also satisfies them. Main objective of a civil action is not correction or
punishment of the defendant and provide them better judgement.
Criminal Courts: It majorly deals with people who accused of committing any type of crime
and the court decides whether they are criminal or not, so for this reason, it demonstrates the
consequences they shall suffer.
Functions of Criminal Courts: The main role of this court is different from its common law. It
provides the best decisions against crime and assist in reducing it (Miller, 2016). It also renders
adversarial system that holds such cases for a specific period and gives better results for it.
TASK 3
Grounds and routes for appeal in civil and criminal courts
Any person can appeal in Civil and Criminal Courts on the basis of some grounds if he or
she is unhappy from the decisions made by their judges. Sometimes, it is possible to appeal
against the decision to a judge in the respective High Court.
Grounds and routes for appeal in Civil Courts: Persons who are unsatisfied with the
judgement of lower court, can apply in this court on the following grounds that are given below:
 An appeal from other County Court decisions and from the High Court go to the Civil
Court (Paulsen, 2018).
 If satisfied with tribunal decisions that can made in relation to points of law, then apply in
Civil Courts.
Grounds and routes for appeal in Criminal Courts: A person can appeal in this Criminal
Court on the basis of such grounds:
 Unsatisfied with the Crown Court
 People can make appeal on the grounds of any conviction on matters of law that can be
right or wrong, but authorization of leave in the court is needed for other reasons
(Seidman and Seidman, 2018).
 Any person who also appeals and he or she feels that there is a partiality with her or him
in the process of judgement of lower court so that they can appeal in other court.
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 If the judge makes any error of law or misunderstandings, then the surviving party can
make an appeal.
TASK 4
Roles and functions of the legal personnel and arguments for the fusion of the legal profession
In every court, there are several legal personnel and they perform many functions. In such
legal personnel, it includes witnesses, lawyers, judges, parties and many more.
In this context, their major functions and roles are described as follows:
 Parties – Parties may or may not be present at the major counsel tables with their
supportive lawyers. In criminal cases, defendants should have a right given by the
constitutions (Smith, 2016).
 Witnesses – They provide testimony about the facts in those cases that are in dispute.
They sit in the witness stand and face the courtroom. Their role is to say only the truth
about the case and never say any lie. Witnesses should provide the actual things so that it
is useful for the legal work.
 Lawyers – Functions of lawyers are described that they work for their client and provide
them suitable considerations or suggestions. They should support to their client and give
them the best section or law so that any person gets better judgement (Frank and Bix,
2017). Lawyers read the case and describe its suitable law for it and give the best
decision.
 Judge – He is the one who gives judgement which is based on their knowledge about law
and regulations for a particular case. They should preside over the proceedings and order
is maintained and determined the evidences that parties who want to use improper or
illegal substances.
According to Seth Nthai, fusion of the profession is not an answer to all challenges
facing by legal profession. In England, solicitors now have audience's rights which help in
jurisdiction and related to the all proceedings. In Wales and England, the legal profession is
classified into two major elements as barristers and solicitors. They are well qualified under a
special training system.
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Roles and functions that lay people and its contribution to the judicial process.
Lay people refers to the non-qualified and ordinary people in such legal system. The term
lay people is used in magistrate’s courts, Crown courts and High Court to deal with civil cases.
They refer to juries and magistrates (Ginsburg, 2016). Such people are normally sit on the bench
of 2, 3 or 4 in Court and hear to the magistrates. These are also known as common people with
sufficient knowledge for all legal proceedings. There are different types of qualities to become a
magistrate such as maturity, social awareness and good characteristics in lay people. They must
be impartial in their nature.
The courts of United Kingdom that have several advantages of such lay people for the
judicial procedures such as:
 All cases are dealt speedily because there are wider range of people who deals with it.
 All magistrates often have sufficient knowledge of the area in which they are
continuously working (Howard 2014).
 In UK, there are few appeals for the decisions made by judges because of lay people.
TASK 5
Alternative methods for settlement of legal disputes
All legal proceedings and regulations are still essential method for resolving all types of
disputes and conflicts but there are many other techniques or ways that are useful in settlement of
any disputes and it is called Alternative Dispute Resolution (Alternative ways of resolving
disputes, 2016). Such methods are used outside the court with clarification by all parties.
These methods are described as follows:
 Arbitration – This method is applied on private basis with appointing an arbitrator who
is neutral and independent person. He or she considers the disputes and provide final
decisions which is known as award (Jain, 2017). In such process, it includes adjudication
so it is similar to the litigation. It is a non-court alternative method and parties make their
own adjudicatory forum and useful for solving all types of cases. It is widely used in UK
and is utilized for avoiding long process of commercial disputes that can see as solution
provided by the court of law.
 Mediation – It is a special process that focuses on effective negotiations and
communication skills. Role of mediator is useful in communication with all parties of the
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case. It is not a process of force compromise but in such process, compromise is an
essential element (Landis, 2017). All parties should have respect for each other and
expect to make changes. Success rate of mediation process is nearly about 82% to 90%.
The appointed mediator is never guided or controlled by any party so that there are no
partiality with any of the parties.
Advantages and disadvantages for using such methods
Alternative method for
dispute resolution
Benefits Drawbacks
Arbitration This method is based on mini
trial and heard by one or more
arbitrators. Its major benefit is
it faster and cheaper than
litigation process (Li, 2016). It
provides more flexibility in
scheduling and problem
solving. It is useful for
providing better solutions in
little expenses.
There is major disadvantage as
the potential for a partial
arbitrator or a panel of
arbitrators. It provides a little
explanation that is used for the
decision making process.
Parties may have limited
power for bargaining in such
method. It can utilize as
stalling tactic.
Mediation In this method, there is
involvement of an independent
and impartial mediator that
facilitates the discussion for
such case. Its benefit is it
preserves relationship among
all parties. This process is very
quickly even faster than
arbitration.
Its major disadvantage is it
bound to the parties so that
they may have in trouble
(Miller, 2016). They must be
willing to cooperate with the
process and make discussion
for its disagreement. In this
context, parties can leave the
case if they are unsatisfied
with the judgement.
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CONCLUSION
This report described a proper system of judicial process in United Kingdom. It
concluded various courts and their jurisdiction processes and also provided comparisons in
between functions of criminal and civil courts. It also included the grounds or basis on which any
unsatisfied party can appeal in both the civil and criminal courts. Further, it concluded roles and
functions of legal personnel and lay people with their contribution in jurisdiction. Lastly, it
covered different alternative methods with its suitable benefits and limitations.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Frank, J. and Bix, B.H., 2017. Law and the modern mind. Routledge.
Ginsburg, T., 2016. Introduction. In Judicial Politics in Mexico (pp. 15-21). Routledge.
Howard Jr, J.W., 2014. Courts of appeals in the federal judicial system: A study of the second,
fifth, and District of Columbia circuits. Princeton University Press.
Jain, M.P., 2017. Outlines of Indian legal history. NM Tripathi Private Ltd.
Landis, J.M., 2017. The Business of the Supreme Court: A Study in the Federal Judicial System.
Routledge.
Li, Y., 2016. The judicial system and reform in post-mao China: Stumbling towards justice.
Routledge.
Miller, L.M., 2016. Working on the Inside: Feminism and the Judicial System.
Paulsen, B.S., 2018. A Stranger in the Eyes of the Court: How the Judicial System Is Failing to
Protect Nonbiological LGBTQ Parents. U. Ill. L. Rev., p.311.
Seidman, A. and Seidman, R.B., 2018. Terms of reference for national consultant--strengthening
the rule of law: supporting the judicial system in Nepal.
Smith, G., 2016. Lost in Translation: Examining Alberta's Duty to Consult Policy and the
Challenge Government Faces when Policies Are Imposed on them by the Judicial System
(Doctoral dissertation, Faculty of Graduate Studies).
Online
Alternative ways of resolving disputes. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.wrighthassall.co.uk/knowledge/legal-articles/2016/04/27/alternative-ways-
resolving-disputes/>
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