Judicial system of the United Kingdom
The purpose of the given paper is to understand and analyze the judicial system of the United Kingdom by looking at the units of judiciary in form of courts. There will be three courts which will be primarily discussed in this essay – the Crown Court, The Country Court and the High Court which would be followed by certain general characteristics of the judicial system of the United Kingdom. (Brown, 2002).
The judicial system of a United Kingdom is divided into three separate zones, based on geography. One belongs to the England and Wales, the second one belongs to Northern Ireland the third one belongs to Scotland. Though, all three of them are ultimately presided over by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (Carnwath, 2011).
The United Kingdom has a common law legal system. By common law legal system it is meant that there aren’t strictly coded laws which have to be followed in entirety when deciding upon a case. Under this each case is judged upon it’s own specific merits. There is a legal precedent that is established with each case which is then consequently followed by other cases. Again, the decision that is delivered has certain parts in the judgment – state decries, ratio decendendi and Obiter Dictum. Ratio Decidendi is that part of the judgment which is made in reference to the rule of law and is binding upon the lower courts and the courts of the same hierarchy. Obiter Dictum is that part of the judgment which is given as advice from judges, it is not binding in nature. The third kind is the state decrisis which means the legal points in question that help in determining the legal principles in question (Mohamed, 2014). A better example of a common law system is for example a case law like Harvey V. Facey which laid down certain foundations of Contract law which are to be followed hereafter in contract law. Suppose a decision has been made by Queen’s Bench then it would be binding upon Magistrate courts, Country Court, Crown Courts and Tribunals. One of the things to remember is that a particular rule will always be above a general rule. For example if there is an act on environment it would be the one which will be followed over any generic regulation on the environment (Ball, 2014).
(I.C. RDS 3185)