Consolidation

Question 1

What is the civil court structure (lowest to highest court)?

Answer 1

Courts of first instance – County Court, High Court

Appeal courts – Court of Appeal (Civil Division), Supreme Court; sometimes HC has appellate jurisdiction

CC appeals to HC, HC to COA with permission, COA to SC with permission on point of law

HC can appeal by leapfrog to SC on point of law of general importance if SC gives permission

Question 2

What is the criminal court structure (lowest to highest)?

Answer 2

Court of first instance – MC or Crown Court

Appeal courts – HC or COA (Criminal Division)

Prosecutions by the police – start in either Magistrates or Crown Court (minor or major offences)

Appeals – can appeal all the way to SC if there is an issue on a point of law of general public importance and leave to appeal has been granted

Question 3

Judicial hierarchy (highest to lowest)

Answer 3

Lord Chief Justice

Master of Rolls

Supreme Court Justices

Heads of Division

District Judges and Magistrates near the bottom

• Magistrates are voluntary and not legally qualified
• District judges on the civil side

Question 4

What are rights of audience?

Answer 4

Right to speak in court

Solicitors need higher courts advocacy qualifications to appear in courts further than Magistrates and County Courts

Question 5

What is the doctrine of precedent?

Answer 5

A proposition of law is binding to the courts below if there is:

• A proposition of law
• The ratio decidendi (central legal reason)
• Decided in a court whose decisions on binding on the present court

Obiter dicta is the explanation of the central legal reasoning

Question 6

When can courts depart from their own decisions and when do they bind themselves?

Answer 6

Supreme Court doesn’t bind itself – binds courts below

Court of Appeal usually does bind itself, unless a decision:

• conflicts with another of its own; or
• has been implicitly overruled by SC; or
• was made through carelessness

High Court normally doesn’t bind itself as court of first instance

HC normally does bind itself as an appellate court, subject to same exceptions as COA

Lower courts bind no one

Question 7

In what other ways can courts deal with judgments, aside from following them?

Answer 7

Distinguishing cases

• Point of law is noted, but the facts of this case allow for a different conclusion to be reached

Courts might be able to affirm, apply, depart from, overrule or reverse another decision

Question 8

What are the four rules of statutory interpretation?

Answer 8

1) Literal rule – words given plain, ordinary meaning

2) Golden rule

• Narrow - if a word is capable of more than one meaning, you can choose that meaning which does not produce an absurd result
• Wide - even where a word has only
  one meaning, interpret it in a way
  that avoids a result that is
  obnoxious to public policy

3) Mischief rule – consider what mischief or defect in existing law the statute was intended to remedy

4) Purposive approach – consider the reasons why the statute was passed and its purpose and interpret on that basis, even if it doesn’t follow ordinary meaning of words

Question 9

What are two key presumptions that operate in English and Welsh courts?

Answer 9

Presumption against criminal liability without their being criminal intent

Presumption against deprivation of liberty

Question 10

Give examples of the main aids to statutory interpretation and construction

Answer 10

1) Intrinsic

• Statute read as a whole in context
• Interpretation sections of statute

2) Extrinsic

• Dictionary
• Other statutes
• Interpretation Acts
• Hansard (record of Parliamentary debates) - can be used:

if the statute is
ambiguous or the literal
meaning leads to
absurdity; and

the material in
Hansard consists of
clear statements by a
Minister or other
promoter of the Bil