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               Magistrates' Courts
Magistrates' Courts are  the  people's  courts,  formerly  known  as  police
courts, the lowest tier in the criminal justice system.
    There are around 28,000 lay magistrates sitting in the 700 or so  courts
in England and Wales (the system  is  different  in  Scotland  and  Northern
Ireland). They deal with more than two million cases a year, and  perform  a
variety of other functions as well.
    Their main job is to deliver 'summary justice' to  people  charged  with
less serious crimes (grave offences are dealt with at the Crown Court).
                 8 Crown Courts
Crown Courts have existed only since 1972.
    When there is a jury, the judge's role is limited to deciding matters of
law and summing-up to the jury. The jury decides whether  the  defendant  is
guilty or not guilty.
    There are 94 Crown Court centres in England  and  Wales,  many  of  them
consisting of several courtrooms.
    The most famous Crown Court in England, and  perhaps,  the  most  famous
court in the world, is the  Old  Bailey.  Officially  the  Central  Criminal
Court, it stands on the site of Newgate prison, and was completed in 1907.
    The Crown Court acts also as the appeal court against  both  convictions
and sentences by magistrates. When the appeal  is  against  conviction,  the
Crown Court judge re-hears all the  evidence  that  witnesses  have  already
given in the lower court, but there is no jury. For all  appeals  the  judge
sits with two, three or four lay magistrates.

                County Courts
      Just as the  Magistrates'  Courts  deal  with  the  vast  majority  of
criminal. cases, county courts take on most of the smaller civil  cases.  In
general, they deal with breach of contract or tort  cases  involving  up  to
5,000 pounds. They also have jurisdiction  over  most  matrimonial  matters.
They can grant divorces and make  a  range  of  orders  relating  to  money,
property and children. There are county courts all over England  and  Wales,
around 270 altogether. The judges have the rank of circuit judge,  the  same
level as those who sit in the Crown Court.
                 The High Court
    The 81 High Court judges are distributed between  the  three  divisions,
which have their home in London's Royal  Courts  of  Justice,  an  eccentric
Victorian Gothic building on the Strand, with  outposts  in  some  25  large
provincial towns and cities.
    The biggest of the divisions,  with  the  widest  jurisdiction,  is  the
Queen's Bench (King's Bench). Its most important function  is  as  the  main
civil court for disputes involving more than 5,000 pounds. Claims for  money
owing, and actions for damages arising from motor  and  work  accidents  are
the High Court's main folder. It  also  deals  with  suits  for  libel.  The
division also includes  a  Commercial  Court,  which  specialises  in  large
commercial disputes, and an Admiralty Court for shipping cases.
    The Family Division deals with divorce; disputes between warring spouses
involving children,  property  or  money;  adoption,  wardship,  and  other
questions affecting children.
    The  Chancery  Division  deals  with  tax,  interpretation   of   wills,
companies, settlements, trusts, and various other issues affecting  finance
and property.

             The Court Of Appeal
    The Court of Appeal is the main repository of dissatisfaction  with  the
decisions of lower courts. Above it is the House of Lords.
    There are two divisions of the appeal court: the head  of  the  Criminal
Division is no less than the Lord Chief Justice, the  country's  top  judge.
The Civil Division is led by the Master of the  Rolls.  It  is  yet  another
oddity of the system that these, the two most senior judges, do not  sit  in
the most senior court, the House of Lords.
    The Civil Division hears appeals from the High Court  as  well  as  from
county courts and a few more specialised courts.

              The House Of Lords
      The House of Lords is the final arbiter not only of all  English  law,
but also of Scottish civil, though not criminal, law. The Law Lords  do  not
deliver judgements like all other judges, they make speeches.  They  do  not
come to a decision, they take  a  vote  on  a  motion  that  the  appeal  be
dismissed or allowed.
               Some Other Courts

    The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
    Its jurisdiction is now confined to hearing appeals from  the  remaining
colonies, and from those former British territories  which  have  chosen  to
retain it as their final appeal court.   The judges  of  the  Privy  Council
are predominantly the same Law Lords that  normally  sit  in  the  House  of
Lords, with the addition, every  now  and  again,  of  eminent  judges  from
Commonwealth countries,
    The Employment Appeal Tribunal was set up following the  great  increase
in recent years of disputes arising from  employment,  especially  involving
unfair dismissal or discrimination. The court hears appeals from  industrial
tribunals. Every case is heard by a High Court judge  and  two  lay  members
chosen for their knowledge and experience of industrial  relations:    trade
union  officials,  for   instance,   and   representatives   of   employers'
organizations.
    The Restrictive Practices Court which is of the level of the High Court,
has various powers to stop or control restrictive or monopolistic  practices
in the supply of goods  and  services  -  for  example,  agreements  between
ostensibly competitive  companies  to  charge  a  minimum  price  for  their
products, against the interests of the consumer.
    Coroners' Courts. Coroners, who must be qualified  lawyers  or  doctors,
have a  duty  to  hold  public  inquests  into  any  violent,  unnatural  or
suspicious death, or in the case of a  person  dying  suddenly  without  any
obvious cause, or in prison or in police  custody.  Coroners'  inquests  are
not trials, but witnesses are called, and there is often a jury  who  decide
on the  manner  of  death  -  suicide,  unlawful  killing,  misadventure  or
accident - or (where they are not sure) return an open verdict.
    Tribunals. Outside the normal hierarchy  of  the  courts,  flourishes  a
parallel structure of administrative and  judicial  bodies  lumped  together
under the genera! description of  tribunals.  Some  of  them  have  been  in
existence for a century or more, but they have  proliferated  especially  in
the last thirty years, since the creation of the welfare  state.  The  sixty
or so tribunals cover a wide range of subjects, from tax to  mental  health,
from forestry to patents. Some of the most important  and  widely  used  are
the industrial tribunals, where workers can claim  compensation  for  unfair
dismissal; the supplementary benefit appeals tribunal;  rent  tribunal;  and
the immigration appeals tribunal.
    The tribunals differ in their membership and  rules  of  procedure,  but
they all conduct themselves according to the principles of justice  used  by
the courts.

             Two Foreign Courts
Two courts outside Britain's boundaries have recently come  to  play  a  big
part in her affairs. The two deal  with  completely  different  issues,  and
belong to different regional institutions,
    The European Court (more properly, the Court of Justice of the  European
Community, called the European Union - EU - since 1993) sits in  Luxembourg.
It is the court of the EU, and therefore Britain, as its  member,  is  under
its jurisdiction on matters affecting the EU.
    The European Court of Human  Rights  sits  in  Strasbourg  (France)  and
operates under the umbrella of the Council of Europe.
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