The Hierarchical Structure of The Court System in England and Wales - Essay Example

?Running Head: Court System in England and Wales Assess the hierarchical structure of the court system in England and Wales. To what extent does the common law doctrine of binding precedent engage with this structure? [Name of the Writer] [Name of the Institution] Assess the hierarchical structure of the court system in England and Wales. To what extent does the common law doctrine of binding precedent engage with this structure? Hierarchal structure of Court System in England and Wales The hierarchal structure of court system of England and Wales can be noticed as divided into five levels. Supreme Court also called previously as House of Lords and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are at first level, Court of Appeal is on the second level, High Court on third, Crown Court and County Courts on four and Magistrates’ Courts and Tribunals Services are at fifth level (Elliot & Thomas 2011). The Supreme Court, which was previously called House of Lords, took over the title of Supreme Court as the uppermost court of England and Wales in 2009. The Court of Appeal and the High Court can place appeals to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court can have nine judges for hearing appeals, but usually there are only five. The court of last appeal is the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for countries for Commonwealth countries. Judicial Committee of the Privy Council also functions as the last appeal hearer for the High Court in Scotland and the cases of appeal are normally linked to delegation. Supreme Court took many functions of the Judicial Committee after 2009 as the uppermost court (Elliot & Thomas 2011). The Court of Appeal is divided into two divisions, Criminal and Civil, which have their own courts. The decisions announced by the Court of Appeal in Criminal or Civil Division can be appealed to the Supreme Court. The Civil Division handles cases related to civil decree and family law. The cases from the High Court, County Courts and Tribunals come under the jurisdiction of Civil Division that is a part of Court of Appeal. However, the Criminal division handles cases about indictable offenses and crime. The Criminal Division handles appeals from the Crown Court being a part of Court of Appeal (Jones, 2011). The Chancery Division, the Family Division and the Queen’s Bench Division are the subcategories of the High court. The Civil Division of the Court of Appeal handles any appeals about decisions taken by the High Court. The subcategory of Chancery Division, Companies Court handles cases about business swindles, company disagreements, bankruptcy, organizational administration and disentitlement of directors. Patents Courts, second subcategory of Chancery Division handles cases about scholarly possessions, copyrights, government grants and trademarks. The Divisional Court, the third subpart of Chancery Division handles cases about ‘equity and trusts’, ‘controversial probates’, ‘tax partnerships’ and liquidation (Jones, 2011). The Family Division handles cases about marital issues like guardianship of children, family, espousal, parental accommodation, domestic sadism, breakage of relationships, and termination of marital agreements, divorces, and medical handling situations (Elliot & Thomas 2011). The Queen’s Bench Division is divided into Administrative Court, Admiralty Court, Commercial Court, Mercantile Court, and Technology and Construction Court. The Administrative Court is responsible for hearing the legal reassessments, legislative cases and claims, and claims that come under the category of cases according to ‘Drug Trafficking Act 1984’ and the ‘Criminal Justice Act 1988’. The Administrative Court also supervises the courts and tribunals inferior to it about legitimized decisions. It also supports localized establishments, ‘Ministries of the Crown’ and public authorities in legal decision-making (Elliot & Thomas 2011). The Admiralty Court is responsible for handling disagreements related to nautical and shipment issues such as accidents, rescue, transportation of goods, restrictions and credit issues. The court is authorized to take into custody the containers and shipments to trade them as per the rules and regulations of the land’s law. The Commercial Court is responsible for handling cases about domestic and externalized commercial disagreements like global buying and selling, investment, merchandise and adjudication disagreements. The Mercantile Court handles cases about domestic and externalized commercial disagreements, but these issues are less important than those handled by the Commercial Court. The Technology and Construction Court handle the cases about disagreements related to technology and construction including issues of technical nature (Jones, 2011). The County Courts handle civil cases that come under the value of five thousand pounds. For example, the cases dealing with application of reimbursement of liability, contract infringement related to possessions or merchandise, personal damage, family matters such as espousal and separation, lodging matters such as recuperation of credit and rental fees that are overdue and reclamation, and implementation of County Court decisions. The County Courts do not have juries and the judge hears and decides for an appeal. The cases can be further appealed in the High Court (Elliot & Thomas 2011). The Crown Court handles the cases related to criminal offenses. Magistrates’ Courts transfers these cases to the Crown Court. The criminal cases are related to murdering, rape and burglary. The cases forwarded for verdict and petition are also dealt in the Crown Court. The cases dealt by the Crown Court can be further beseeched in the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division (Elliot & Thomas 2011). The Magistrates’ Courts are responsible for handling the initial proceedings of criminal cases. Smaller crimes are decided at the Magistrates’ Courts while indictable wrongdoings are passed on to the Crown Court. The Magistrates’ Courts also handle some civil cases acknowledged as family proceedings. The decided criminal cases can be further pleaded in the Crown Court (Jones, 2011). The Tribunals handle issues related to sanctuary, immigration, reimbursement of unlawful harm, societal protection, education, work, bearing children, annuity, tax and property. The decided cases of the Tribunals can be further pleaded to the High Court (Jones, 2011). Hierarchal Structure of Court System of England and Wales (Hayes 2010) Engagement of the common law doctrine of binding precedent with the Court structure Courts are restricted in terms of their force to create law because of the hierarchal structure of court system and the doctrine of binding precedent. The decisions that are taken at different courts for diverse cases are recorded in writing as well as voice recording. Common law comes under the category of judge created laws. No legislation can be implemented on Common law. The doctrine of precedent can be described as a collection of rules and regulations controlling the manner through which, the courts handle the cases for which, they have to take decisions. This doctrine can also be called doctrine of Stare Decisis that means that the decision should stand. The significance of doctrine of precedent can be assessed as it permits a complete systematic procedure for appealing to higher courts when one is displeased with a decision. A decision must have a reason and this reason connects other cases of similar nature to have the same decisions (Martin 2005). The doctrine of precedent is there because it supports the judges in deciding for similar cases similarly. The precedent appears as a lawful base of an earlier case and if the facts and figures of the later case would be the same, the decision would be the same based on the precedent. The decisions taken by the higher courts must be followed by the lower courts and the courts should follow a hierarchy to making decisions (Adams 2008). A binding precedent cannot be exempted or rejected as it is decided by a higher court and must be accepted and forwarded. The case for a binding precedent should have same facts and issues and should point to the same decision as was taken before by some higher court. In case of failure to comply with the binding precedent, the case can be appealed to a higher court. The common law doctrine of binding precedent engages with the court structure of England and Wales as binding precedent is retrieved from a higher level of court and cannot be negated or rejected by lower courts so it is settled as per the structure and placement of the courts in the hierarchal framework (Martin 2005). Conclusion The court system in England and Wales is divided into certain levels starting from Supreme Court to the Tribunals and Magistrates’ Courts. Supreme Court is the highest most court of the court system. Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is also of top level. The second in hierarchy is the Court of Appeal followed by Criminal and Civil Divisions. Magistrates’ Courts and Tribunals that are at the last level of hierarchy of court system follow Crown Court and County Courts at forth level. The decisions from lower courts can be appealed in the higher courts. However, the binding precedent cannot be appealed as it is a decision that is taken by a higher court and can be reused if the judges find a similar case with similar issues and facts. If a judge at a lower level of court system does not follow the binding precedent in giving a decision, the case can be appealed at a higher level. Bibliography Adams, A. 2008. Law for business students. 7th ed. London: Pearson-Longman. Elliot, M & Thomas, R. 2011. Public Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 232-237. Hayes, C. 2010. Just a thought...: Introduction to Law + Reporting the Courts. [online]. Available at: http://cvhayes.blogspot.com/2010/10/introduction-to-law-reporting-courts.html [Accessed: 17 Oct 2013]. Jones, L. 2011. Introduction to Business Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 17-29. Martin, J. 2005. The English Legal System.  4th ed. London: Hodder Arnold.   Read More