Chapter V The Judiciary

I. Introduction 1. The House of Lords is in the supreme executive body of the law, whereas the Lord Chancellor presides over the administration of Justice. 2. The Attorney General and Solicitor General also do some administration of Justice. 3. In Britain, there is no civil code and criminal code.

II. British Law 1. Partly of statutes or Acts of Parliament 2. Partly of common law made up of past decisions of judges, which is in accordance with custom and reason and the previous decisions of courts. 3. A great part of the civil law is made up of a mass of precedents, previous court decisions, interpreted in authoritative legal text-books.

III. The Judicial Organizations 1. The central courts, which include the House of Lords and Privy Council, the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal.the High Court of Justice 2. The local courts which are the magistrates’ courts, the county courts and others in England and Wales.The local courts 3. In terms of the nature of cases, there are the Civil Courts and the Criminal Courts.Civil Courts Criminal Courts

IV. The Jury 1.There must be the presence of a jury in most trials, whose job is deciding whether the accused person is guilty or innocent in the light of the evidence. 2. They have no hand in deciding on the “sentence” which is up to the judges. 3. Legally any citizen(18-65) who has never been sent to prison can be a member of the jury.

V. The Lawyers and Policemen 1. There are two kinds of lawyers: barristers and solicitors. 2. British policemen in England and Wales are under the responsibility of the Home Secretary. 3. Policemen in Northern Ireland are directly controlled by the secretary of the Northern Ireland Office.

4. They are divided into 52 forces which are responsible for their own zones of operation. 5. The local police have become well- known in the world because of detective fiction: Scotland Yard. 6. Policemen in Britain are not armed.

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The High Court of Justice  The Chancellor Division: deals with questions of company law, bankruptcy, trusts, the administration of the estates of people who have died.  Family Division: tackles divorce and questions arising out of wills.  The Queen’s Bench Division: made up of the Lord Chief Justice and thirty-nine other judges.

The Local Courts  The local courts deal with all cases, big or small, but if the case is too serious for the magistrates, they send it to be tried at a higher court, because the magistrates’ court only has the power to impose fines of up to ￡ 1000 and to send people to prison for up to six months.

The Civil Court  The system takes cases of debts, contracts, divorce, questions arising out of wills, individual properties, and others.  Punishments mainly take the form of fines.  Various levels: the county court -- the High Court of Justice -- the Court of Civil Appeal -- the House of Lords

The Criminal Court  The system deals with cases involving various crimes.  The punishments are chiefly imprisonments, but fines are imposed as well.  Levels: the local court – the Criminal Court – the Court Criminal Appeal – the House of Lords