The Judiciary

Question 1

Division of Judiciary

Answer 1

The basic function is the same: to make decisions in respect of disputes in a fair, unbiased way applying the law and legal rules.

Question 2

Types of Judges

Answer 2

Divided into:
- superior judges
- inferior judges

Question 3

Types of Judges - superior

Answer 3

Work in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court. They are:
- the Justices of the Supreme Court
- the Lord Justices of Appeal in the Court of Appeal
- High Court Judges who sit in the 3 divisions of the High Court; judges in the King’s Bench Divison of the High Court also sit to hear serious cases at the Crown Court.
Head of judiciarcy is the Lord Chief Justice.

Question 4

Types of Judges - inferior

Answer 4

Includes:
- Circuit Judges who sit in both the Crown Court and the County Court
- recorders who are part time judges who usually sit in the Crown Court, though some hear cases in the County Court
- District Judges who hear small claims and other matters in the county Court
- District Judges who sit in the Magistrates’ Court in major towns and cities
- Tribunal Judges

Question 5

Qualifications

Answer 5

Relevant qualifications for different judical posts are set out in the Courts and Legal Service Act 1990 as amended by the Tribunals, Courts and Enforment Act 2007. Qualifications are based on legal qualifications and legal experience for a number of years.

Question 6

Selection

Answer 6

Up to 2005, a selection of judges was done by the Lord Chancellor, the system was secretive. The Lord Chancellor is a political appointment, meaning the selection of judges was not independent from political influence. The system changed by the Consitutional Reform Act 2005 which established the Judical Appointments Commission to deal with the selection of judges. They advertise vacancies for judical posts, interview appliants and reccomend to the Lord Chancellor who should be appointed.

Question 7

Appointment

Answer 7

Once a candidate had been selected, the appointment is made by the King, to keep selection and appointment seperate from the government.

Question 8

Heirarchy of Judges

Answer 8

Superior judges:
1) Justices of the Supreme Court sit in the Supreme Court
2) Lord Justices of Appeal sit in the Court of Appeal
3) High Court sit in 3 divisions
Inferior:
1) Circut judges sit in the Crown Court and the County Court
2) Recorders sit part-time in the Crown Court and the County Court
3) a) District judges sit in the County Court
b) District judges sitin the Magistrates’ Court

Question 9

Role of judges - Justices of the Supreme Court

Answer 9

Judges in the Supreme Court hear about 100 cases each year. These are appeals and can be criminal or civil, though mainly civil. A case can only be appealed to the Supreme Court if there is a point of law involved. The Justices of the Supreme Court must sit as an uneven number panel to hear a case. Any decisions the Supreme Court makes on a point of law becomes precedent.

Question 10

Role of judges - Lords Justices of Appeal

Answer 10

All their work is concerned with appeals. Sit in both the civil and criminal divison of the Court of Appeal and have a much heavier workload than the Supreme Court.

Question 11

Role of judges - Lords Justices of Appeal - workload

Answer 11

Criminal: they will hear over 7,000 applications for leave to appeal against sentence or conviction. They are delt with by 1 judge, and only a quater get leave to appeal = about 1,800 criminals appeals to hear.
Civil: over 3,000 appeals, maybe against the finding of liability or about the remedy awarded.

Question 12

Role of judges - Lords Justices of Appeal - judging and powers

Answer 12

Usually sit in a panel of 3 to hear cases. On rare and important cases, 5. Decisions by the Court of of Appeal on points of law become precedent.

Question 13

Role of judges - High Court judges

Answer 13

Main function is to try cases. These are known as cases at first instance due to it being the first time a case is being heard by a court. They will hear evidence from witnesses, decide what the law is and make the decision as to which side won the case. When hearing first intance cases, judges sit on their own.

Question 14

Role of judges - High Court judges - additional duties

Answer 14

They also hear some appeals, mainly from the civil cases tried in the County Court.

Question 15

Role of judges - King’s Bench Divison

Answer 15

Hear criminal appeals from the Magistrates’ Courts by special case stated method. These are appeals on law only.

Question 16

Role of judges - King’s Bench Divison - additional duties

Answer 16

Judges from the King’s Bench Divison also sit in the Crown Court to hear criminal trials. They sit with a jury when they do this. The jury decides the facts and the judges decide the law and sentence.

Question 17

Role of judges - Inferior judges

Answer 17

Circut judges sit in the County Court and Crown Court to hear civil and criminal cases. They decide the law and facts, and make the decision on who won the case.

Question 18

Role of judges - Inferior judges - criminal

Answer 18

• Circut Judges sit with a jury. The jury decides the facts, the judge decides the law and sentence.
• District Judges try criminal cases in the Magistrates’ Court. They sit on their own and decide facts and law as well as the sentence.

Question 19

Role of judges - Inferior judges - recorders

Answer 19

Part time judges who are appointed for a period of 5 years. Mainly used in the Crown Court to try criminal cases, but some sit in the County Court to decide civil cases.

Question 20

Role of judges - Inferior judges - civil

Answer 20

District Judges sit in the County Court to deal with small claims (under £10,000) and can also hear other cases for larger amounts.

Question 21

Independancy of the judiciary

Answer 21

Judges in the English legal system can be thought of as being independent in many ways:
- security of tenure (superior)
- security of tenure (inferior)
- immunity from suit
- independence from executive
- independence from case

Question 22

Independancy of the judiciary - security of tenure of superior judges

Answer 22

Superior judges have a security of tenure that cannot be dismissed by the government.

Question 23

Independancy of the judiciary - security of tenure of superior judges - timeline

Answer 23

This right originated from the Act of Settlement 1701 which allowed them to hold office while of good behaviour. Beofre 1700, the monarch could dismiss judges at will. The same provision is now contained in the Senior Courts Act 1981 for High Court Judges and Lords Justices of Appeal and in the Consititutional Reform Act 2005 for the Justices of the Supreme Court.

Question 24

Independancy of the judiciary - security of tenure of superior judges - protection and independence

Answer 24

Judges can only be removed by the monarch following a petition presented by both Houses of Parliament. This gives superior judges protection from political whims and allows them to be independent in their judgements.

Question 25

Independancy of the judiciary - security of tenure of superior judges - case

Answer 25

Jonah Barrington 1830 - an Irish judge misappropiated £700 from court funds.

Question 26

Independancy of the judiciary - tenure of inferior judges

Answer 26

These do not have the same security as superior judges. The Lord Chancellor with the consent of the Lord Chief Justice has the power to dismiss inferior judges for incapacity or misbehaviour. A criminal conviction for dishonesty is a misbehaviour and would lead to the dismissal of the judge concerned.

Question 27

Independancy of the judiciary - tenure of inferior judges - cases

Answer 27

Bruce Campbell 1970s - a circut judge convicted of evading customs duty on cigarettes and whiskey. Constance Briscoe 2014 - a recorder was convicted and imprisioned for perverting the course justice by lying and altering her witness statement.

Question 28

Independancy of the judiciary - tenure of inferior judges - complaints

Answer 28

Complaints are investigated bythe Judical Conduct Investigations Office. If the complaint is true, the matter is reported to the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice. The offending judge can be reprimanded or warned, or in serious cases be removed from office. Complaints being investigated by an independent helps maintain judical precedent.

Question 29

Independancy of the judiciary - immunity from suit

Answer 29

Judges are given immunity from prosecution for any acts they carry out in preformance of their judical function and immunity from being sued in civil cases, as well as protection from being sued for defamation.

Question 30

Independancy of the judiciary - immunity from suit - case

Answer 30

Sirros v Moore - judges are immune from being sued in civil cases.

Question 31

Independancy of the judiciary - immunity from suit - protection

Answer 31

Immuntiy from suit allows a judge to preform duties without fear of reprecussions. It gives them complete independence. A judge would only be liable if they were not acting in a judicial capacity or if they knew that they had no jurisdiction do do what they did.

Question 32

Independancy of the judiciary - independence from the executive

Answer 32

Superior judges cannot be dismissed by the government, and in this way they can truly be said to be independent from government. They can make decisions which may displease the government without threat of dismissal.

Question 33

Independancy of the judiciary - independence from the executive - guarantee

Answer 33

Judical independence is a guarantee under s.3 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. This states that: - Lord Chancellor, other ministers in the government and anyone with responsabilities for matters relating to the judicracy must uphold the continued independence - Lord Chancellor and other ministers must not seek to influence judical decisions. Judges now being recommended for appointment by the Judical Appointments also keeps them independent from the executives.

Question 34

Independancy of the judiciary - independence from the executive - independence from the legislature

Answer 34

Judges are generally not involved in the law making functions of Parliament. Full time judges are not allowed to be members of the House of Commons, the rule is not as strict for part time judges. Recorders and assistant recorders can be members of Parliament. There used to be judges in the House of Lords when the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords was the final court of appeal - the main reason for the creation of the Supreme Court in 2009 was to seperate judicracy from legislature.

Question 35

Independancy of the judiciary - independence from case

Answer 35

Judges must not try any case where they have any interest in the issue involved.

Question 36

Independancy of the judiciary - independence from case - case

Answer 36

Pinochet 1988 - reinforced the independence of case. The case had to be retired with a new panel of judges.

Question 37

Reasons for judical independence

Answer 37

- Important in protecting the liberty of the individual from abuse of power by the executive, completely vital in a democracy; government power must be limited. Judges cannot be forced to resign, and shouls not fear reprecussions for speaking out. - Judges must be impartial in their decisions. Each judge must be able to decide cases soley on evidence and in accordance with the law. - Must be free to excersise their judicial powers without intereferement from litgants, the state, the media, or other powerful individuals or entities. - Individuals involved in any type of case before the courts must be sure that the judge dealing with their case cannot be influenced by an outside party or personal interests.

Question 38

Reasons for judical independence - example

Answer 38

Brexit 2016-17: There was a challenge as to whether the executive could do this without consulting Parliament, it was heard that Parliament must be consulted before taking action. This decision was attacked by a few, however the PM, Theresa May, publicly held the right of the judicracy to be independent.

Question 39

Advantages of judical inependence

Answer 39

- Decisions are only made on the basis of facts of the case and law, ensuring fairness in all directions. - The judicracy are able to protect citizens against unlawful acts of government. There can be an impartial judical review of acts or decisions by the government. - The public have confidence in the system. Their cases will be decided fairly and in accordance with the law.