Induction Stuff (not on physical flash cards)

Question 1

Rules of precedent

Answer 1

1. Supreme Court: binding on all inferior courts, not always itself
2. Court of Appeal: binding on all inferior courts including itself
3. High Court: binding on all inferior courts and on itself (except decisions taken by a single judge)
4. Upper Tribunal - binding on the First Tier Tribunal, inferior courts, and itself
5. First Tier Tribunal - not binding but may be persuasive
6. Family Court, County Court, Crown Court, Magistrates Court - not binding

Question 2

Equitable remedies

Answer 2

• main remedy is award of damages
• equitable remedy only awarded if damages not adequate
• specific performance
• injunctive relief
• declaratory relief
• recission
• rectification

Question 3

Criminal standard of proof

Answer 3

Beyond reasonable doubt

Question 4

Magistrates Court

Answer 4

• lowest level of criminal courts
• all cases start here
• tries all summary criminal offences and some triable either-way offences
• power to impose fine of up to £5,000 and/or maximum prison sentence of 6 months for a single offence
• can commit defendant to Crown Court either for trial or sentence

Question 5

Indictable only offences

Answer 5

can only be tried in the Crown Court; too serious for Magistrates but still begin in the Magistrates who decide whether to grant bail or consider procedural issues

Question 6

Appeals against Magistrates

Answer 6

• can appeal conviction or sentence in Crown Court
• if appealing conviction, the trial is heard ‘de novo’ (fresh) before a Crown Court judge and 2 Magistrates
• prosecution has no right of appeal
• Crown Court has greater sentencing powers (so a risk for the defendant)
• if prosecution finds the decision legally flawed (as opposed to evidence or sentence), they can appeal to the Administrative Court (High Court)
• appellant makes an application for Magistrates to ‘state a case’ (explain their reasoning) and appeal by way of case stated

Question 7

Appeals from the Crown Court

Answer 7

• a defendant convicted and sentenced in the Crown Court can appeal the sentence, the conviction or both
• the prosecution can appeal to the Court of Appeal for an order quashing the acquittal of anyone found not guilty of a ‘serious offence’ and the Attorney General may appeal against an ‘unduly lenient’ sentence.

Question 8

Grounds for appeal against conviction

Answer 8

• have to apply for permission; decided by a single Judge
• Court of Appeal will quash conviction if ‘unsafe’ (oral argument is heard from both sides again)
• common arguments relate to new evidence, errors during the trial process and misdirections of law by the trial judge

Question 9

Grounds for appeal against sentence

Answer 9

• sentence not justified by law
• sentence based on incorrect version of evidence
• judge took irrelevant matters into account
• judge misapplied/didn’t give sufficient weight to sentencing guidelines

Question 10

Appeals from Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) to the Supreme Court

Answer 10

• either defendant or prosecution may apply for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court
• the Supreme Court will only hear an appeal which is certified as being a ‘point of law of general public importance’, a test rarely met in individual criminal cases

Question 11

Criminal cases review commission

Answer 11

• statutory body responsible for reviewing alleged miscarriages of justice
• has the power to send a case back to the Court of Appeal if it considers there is a ‘real possibility’ of conviction or sentence being overturned
• if the decision was made in the Youth or Magistrates, the CCRC can send it back to the Crown Court for review

Question 12

CCRC test for review

Answer 12

• new evidence or new legal argument that makes the case look significantly different
• ‘exceptional circumstances’ caveat but instances are extremely rare

Question 13

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

Answer 13

• final appeal court for UK overseas territories and Crown dependencies
• final appeal court for Commonwealth countries that have retained the appeal to Her Majesty in Council
• advises the Crown so never decides a case but ‘humbly advises Her Majesty’
• hears both criminal and civil matters
• consists of senior members of the judiciary, usually from the Supreme Court and senior members of the judiciary from Commonwealth countries

Question 14

Privy Council precedent

Answer 14

• not binding on English courts but its opinions can be highly persuasive; some decisions are viewed as almost as authoritative as the Supreme Court, but should not be followed in preference to binding precedent
• Willers v Joyce: Supreme Court confirmed the Privy Council should consider itself bound by the Supreme Court
• Supreme Court adopted new procedure providing for possibility of Privy Council expressly departing from a previous decision of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal and expressly directing that English courts should treat its decision as representing the law of England and Wales

Question 15

Civil standard of proof

Answer 15

the balance of probabilities (more than 50% likely to be right)

Question 16

Which civil court?

Answer 16

• most civil claims begin in the County Court
• higher value claims (above £100,000) begin in the High Court
• three tracks for cases in the Crown Court: multi track, fast track and small claims track (valued at less than £10,000, or £1,000 for personal injury)

Question 17

Judges in the County Court

Answer 17

3 levels:

1. Deputy District Judges (DDJs) - most junior
2. District Judges (DJs)
3. Circuit Judges (CJs) - most senior

Question 18

Appeals from the County Court

Answer 18

• decision made by DDJ or DJ = stays in the County Court to be heard by a CJ
• decision of CJ can be appealed to the High Court and Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
• decisions from Court of Appeal can be appealed to the Supreme Court, but only if it deals with a point of law of general public importance

Question 19

What sets out the structure and jurisdiction of the senior courts?

Answer 19

Senior Courts Act 1981

Question 20

The High Court

Answer 20

• sits at the RCJ in London
• a number of regional centres called District Registries
• 3 divisions: QBD, Chancery and Family

Question 21

Judges of the High Court

Answer 21

• appointed by the Queen and on recommendation of the Lord Chancellor after an open competition administered by the Judicial Appointments Commission
• must pass judicial eligibility condition on a 7 year basis or be CJs who have held office for at least 2 years
• prefix ‘the Honourable’
• referred to as Mr/Mrs/Ms Justice [surname]
• abbreviated to [surname] J

Question 22

High Court Masters

Answer 22

• at first instance, deal with all the aspects of legal proceedings until it is ready for trial by trial judge
• comprise of the Senior Master, 9 QBD Masters, Chief Master, 5 Chancery Masters

Question 23

Queen’s Bench Division (QBD)

Answer 23

• mostly civil but has some criminal jurisdiction through Administrative Court
• mainly deal with ‘common law’ cases e.g. contract and tort disputes
• also preside over specialist matters in judicial review

Question 24

The Administrative Court (part of the QBD)

Answer 24

• directed at the lawfulness of actions of government, regulatory and disciplinary bodies, and inferior courts and tribunals, and other public bodies and officials
• has criminal (appeals by way of ‘case stated’) and civil jurisdiction
• doesn’t deal with all judicial review: Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and some cases will be heard by Divisional Court (a court consisting of 2 or more judges: usually criminal cases, especially difficult extradition cases)

Question 25

Chancery Division

Answer 25

• based in the Rolls Building in London and 8 regional centres
• largest unit for business and property cases
• head of the Division = Chancellor of the Court

Question 26

Family Division

Answer 26

• judges in the High Court can hear all cases relating to children and have exclusive jurisdiction in wardship
• hears appeals from Family Court

Question 27

Court of Appeal

Answer 27

• based at RCJ but occasionally sits elsewhere
• Civil Division and Criminal Division
• final court of appeal for most cases
• judges are senior with lengthy judicial experience (the Heads of the Division e.g. Master of the Rolls, President of the QBD, President of the Family Division, Chancellor of the High Court, the Lords Justices of Appeal)
• entitled Lord/Lady Justice [surname] or [surname] LJ

Question 28

Civil Division

Answer 28

• hears appeals from High Court, county courts and tribunals e.g. Employment Appeal Tribunal and Immigration Appeal Tribunal
• headed by Master of Rolls
• generally heard by 3 judges

Question 29

Criminal Division

Answer 29

• hears appeals from Crown Court
• headed by the Lord Chief Justice
• generally, heard by 3 judges

Question 30

The Supreme Court

Answer 30

• hears appeals from courts in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on the most significant cases
• 12 Supreme Court judges, known as Justices (Lord/Lady [surname])
• full court sits for most important cases (usually of constitutional importance), otherwise 5 judges

Question 31

Scrutiny of delegated legislation

Answer 31

• not subject to the same Parliamentary scrutiny as primary legislation
• Parliament can approve or reject a statutory instrument but cannot amend it
• Parliament’s role on SIs depends what the parent act says
• Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments checks SIs to make sure the law is clear and follows parent act powers. If they identify an issue, they can publish recommendations in the House of Lords (affirmative SIs cannot be debated until this is done)
• if it is on financial matters, it is only considered my members of the committee from the Commons (Select Committee on SIs)

Question 32

SIs - Negative procedure

Answer 32

• 80% of SIs are laid under negative procedure
• don’t need active approval from Parliament
• automatically come into effect unless either House annuls them within a fixed period after they are laid (usually 40 days)
• most likely to be debated in Lords
• successful motions to stop them are rare

Question 33

SIs - Affirmative procedure

Answer 33

• need to be approved by Parliament
• most must be debated and approved by both Houses (except financial ones)
• certain Acts use an affirmative procedure which brings an SI into effect immediately and gives Parliament a set time to approve it (e.g. 28 or 40 days) e.g. emergency procedure in a public crisis