Judiciary Flashcards
(15 cards)
Describe
District Judges
Mention, superiority, and what they do in Criminal and Civil cases.
Apart of any role of judges questions.
- Inferior and lowest level in the judicial hierarchy.
Criminal Cases
* Decide fact/law, setence and can hear family cases with two magistrates.
* Work in Magistrates Court.
Civil Cases
* Hear claims under £10,000 but can hear higher claims.
* Work in County Court
Describe
Recorder Judges
Mention, superiority, and what they do in Criminal and Civil cases.
Apart of any role of judges questions.
- Inferior
- Part time judge who sits in court for a month.
- Appointed for a five year period.
Criminal Cases
* Work in Crown Court.
* Can try Criminal Cases.
Civil Cases
* Work in County Court
* Can try Civil Cases
Describe
Circuit Judges
Mention, superiority, and what they do in Criminal and Civil cases.
Apart of any role of judges questions.
- Inferior Judge.
- Over 600 of them.
Criminal Cases
* Sit with jury, decide fact and law, and passes the sentence.
* Works in Crown Court.
Civil Cases
* Decide fact and law, decide who wins remedy or assigns damages.
* Works in County Court.
Describe
High Court Judges
Mention, superiority, and what they do in Criminal and Civil cases.
Apart of any role of judges questions.
- Superior Judge.
Criminal Cases
* Can sit in the Crown Court for Serious Criminal Offences.
* In High Court, listen to evidence and decide law.
Civil Cases
* Can hear, case stated appeals from Magistrates, and County Court appeals.
* In High Court, listen to ecidence, decide liability.
Describe
Lord/Lady Justices of Appeal
Mention, superiority, and what they do in Criminal and Civil cases.
Apart of any role of judges questions.
- Superior
- Sit in Court of Appeal, in a panel of 3 or 5.
- Around about 38 of them.
Criminal Cases
* Hear Appeals from High Court divisions, and County Court.
* May allow appeal in part, full, dismiss or retrial.
Civil Cases
* Appeals against liability or awarded remedy.
Desribe
Justices of the Supreme Court
Mention, superiority, and what they do in Criminal and Civil cases.
Apart of any role of judges questions.
- Most Superior Judges
- Sit in Supreme Court, around about 12 of them
- Originally known as Law Lords.
- Hear Appeals from Court of Appeal / Or Leap-frog appeals from High Court.
- Only if point of law is involved.
- The deciscion is precedent for all lower courts.
Describe
The Seperation of Powers
Montesquieu / R(Miller) v Prime Minister - how does it show independence
Apart of independence of judiciary questions.
- It is a theory defined by Montesquieu
Power is seperated into Executive / Legislature and Judiciary, these all check and balance each other.
- Ensures fair and impartial justice is delivered and no one holds all the power.
- Judges avoid pressure from other Branches.
- Achieved by judicial salaries being independent, JAC, Supreme Court and tenure security.
R (Miller) v Prime Minister - Independent Judiciary, as ruled PM action was unalawful as stopped Parliament carrying out constituional functions without a justification.
Evaluate
Experience of Judges
- What kind of experienced judges are in the high society? What does this ensure for D?
- What universities did they attend? What does this make them?
- How is this different to inferior judges? What statistic in 2007 for District Judges, represents society?
Apart of evaluation of judiciary questions.
- Most experienced judges are in the high court, this gives the D the best legal expertise there is.
- Many of these judges attended Oxford or Cambridge, which means they have the most academic knowledge on Law and are highly skilled in the law.
- No district judge in 2007 was private schooled, so this better represents society.
Evaluate
More Diversity of Judges
- What has recently happened to create diversity in the judicial system?
- What are the main criticisms of the judges and where they typically come from?
- What did the Judicial Appointment Commission do? Is more work needed?
Apart of evaluation of judiciary questions.
- The recent qualification change for inferior judges has created diversity in the judiciary.
- Judges are typically, upper-class and older, so they don’t represent a vast and major of society that are younger and of a lower class, as ideals differ from classes:
- Improved this with qualification change, but more work is needed for diversity.
Evaluate
Lack of Diversity in Judiciary
- Which type of judges have less diversity? What does this lead to?
- In the 1990’s there was no…?, JAC did what, 8 out of 26 are now what?
- What other characteristic wasn’t represented? What does this mean for society?
Apart of evaluation of judiciary questions.
- For superior judges, there is a lack of diversity, so wont relate well with D.
- No women, JAC selection increased this so that 8 are now female, which is good for diversity and allows female viewpoint.
- No ethnically different judges, not representative of wider society which is diverse in race.
Evaluate
Limited Training of Judges
- What is basic of the judges? This leads to some judges not having the?
- What is the career like in other countries? What about here in the UK? What does this mean for general age?
- What is the training like in other countries? This makes judges not in the UK better?
Apart of evaluation of judiciary questions.
- Basic Training and Expertise, don’t have full training on specific judicial tasks.
- Career choice that you pick in the US, but in the UK you have to be a qualified solicitor and work for a long time, making it so in general most judges are aged over 40, doesn’t represent society.
- Specialised training in other countries due to it being a career choice, so judges are better equipped for general judicial scenarios but this isn’t the case in the UK.
Evaluate
Legislative, Judicial Independence
- What are judges not involved in? Fair?
- What is a judges role? What is the Supreme Court separate from?
- What can a SC decision do to current law? Goes against role?
Apart of evaluation of judiciary independence questions.
- Not involved in the law making process which is fair for society..
- Judges role is to apply to law, as they aren’t elected so shouldn’t change law. SC is separate from HOL so there is no overlap in power.
- However an SC decision can add or change to existing laws, not elected and goes against constitutional role.
Evaluate
Government in Judicial Independence
- What can the Gov not do to judges even in dis-agreements?
- This allows judges to work with? And go against? And not be?
- What does this lead to for the law being applied? What does the public think?
Apart of evaluation of judiciary questions.
- Can’t dismiss judges even in a disagreement, so separate.
- Work with no fear, and make decisions that go against the government without a punishment for going against.
- This leads to a proper and accurate application of the law which leads to more public confidence in the judicial system.
Evaluate
Executive, independence from judiciary.
- What can Lord Chancellor and MP’s not do? What other power isn’t involved in judiciary?
- Before the Supreme Court who used to be a judge? Was this complete separation?
- What did this not support? What could happen and what figure is this person? Is this the case now in the Supreme Court?
Apart of evaluation of judiciary questions.
- They can’t interfere with the judiciary in any way, this means there is no political power or influence in judiciary.
- The Lord Chancellor used to be a judge before the Supreme Court, which wasn’t a true separation of power.
- Separate Powers were not supported, as political influence as Lord Chancellor is an inherently political figure, this isn’t a thing now in the Supreme Court.
Evaluate
Cases in the Judicial Independence
- What can’t judges try cases if they have? This ensures?
- What is decision based on? Any influence? Leads the public to feel?
- What happens if there is a risk of bias? Explain this case how was it biased and how was this mitigated?
Pinochet Case
Apart of evaluation of judiciary questions.
- If have interest in the case, they can’t try it. This ensures true independence.
- This makes the decision based on law with no kind of influence, which makes the public more confident in the judiciary.
- A decision made in bias can be overturned. In the Pinochet case, Lord Hoffman was involved with Amnesty International so was biased, there had to be re-trial which is fair.
