The English Precedent Doctrine Law - Essay Example

The particular importance of the House of Lords, as the highest court, is determined that its precedents are obligatory for all courts, without exception. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the supreme and final authority for vessels of all parts of the United Kingdom. The Committee consists of the Lord Chancellor, Lords of Appeal in ordinary, and a certain number of ‘secret advisers’ appointed by the crown. There are three independent higher courts in England. The Court of Appeal, High Court and Crown Court existed since 1971. Their structure and jurisdiction are governed by the new law (1981) of the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeal in 1966 is divided into two departments: civil and criminal.

Chief Justice is the Lord Chancellor. The High Court consists of the Lord Chancellor, Lord - Chief Judge, chairman of the Family Division, Vice-Chancellor and the ordinary judges of that court, including no more than 80 people. Establishing a higher peak is made by the crown ‘Order in Council’ approved by Parliament. The Lower courts are presented by the County Courts and Magistrates Courts. According to Posner (1996), currently, 90% of all civil actions are examined in the County Courts.

Their jurisdiction is competing with the High Court and is limited by the price action. Magistrates Courts like the County Courts are the local courts. Fowler and Jeon (2007) stated that there are approximately 1000 magistrates in England and Wales, which are served by 25 thousand magistrates who are not lawyers and do not get paid. In spite of such a complex system of courts, there are advantages and disadvantages of the Judicial Precedent. The advantages are 1. Certainty - it refers to certainty in the law;2.

Fairness – judges examine analogous cases in an analogous way;3. Time-Saving – if there is a preparing decision the Court time is saved;4. Law Development - it permits the law to expand. The disadvantages are:1. Rigidity - the majority of cases create a too rigid a system to expand the law;2. Injustice - the rigorous laws can develop injustice in particular cases;3. Confusion – the majority of cases are declared annually, the situation of hard finding the appropriate precedent is created;4. Complexity - the law can be very complex with thousands of differences.

Summarizing, we can distinguish the following trends occurring in the English legal system of changes: the rule of parliament remains formally endowed with new contents, the principle of ‘strict precedent’ is staggered. The House of Lords, as the highest court, departed from it, the Appeal Court seeks to depart, there is a new ‘targeted’ approach to the interpretation of laws, the scope of precedent has shifted toward the interpretation of legislation. Case law and statutory law are so intertwined that quantitative growth of laws in the second half of the XX century led only to increased case law, which literally absorbs the laws.