“Comparison and critical appraisal of the English court system”

The courthouse that was attended was the Small Claims Court, in the Durham Region Courthouse at 150 Bond Street East. This court was attended on October 19, 2016, in courtroom 509. The case that was heard was Adam Rantis (Unrepresented) v. Naresh Kumar Ganeshan (represented by Rajan Mahavalirajan). This was a case involving faulty workmanship, The Plaintiff is suing because he hired an installer to put floor down on the main level of his home. Upon completion of the installation it was found that there were many errors with the floor. The homeowner did not notice any of this until after he had paid the installer. As soon as he noticed he contacted the installer and informed him of the condition of the work. The homeowner also called in a

Merit –compare and contrast the role of judges ,lawyers and lay people within the English courts.

This essay will discuss the role of the magistrate and jury in the English and Welsh legal decision-making process. It will assess both the advantages and disadvantages of both mechanisms and give an opinion on the contribution they make in the process.

Law touches almost every aspect of our lives. It demonstrates what we as a society define as right and wrong and offers the best protection to individuals against major powers. I want to study law to gain an understanding of the laws which govern us, as well as to help people overcome inequality. Recently three MP’s were trying to use Article Nine of the Bill of Rights 1689 to privilege their expenses, consequently protecting them from prosecution. This abuse of power served to increase my interest in the overlay and contradictory nature of our laws.

Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. (Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90).Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common jurisdictions.

Many years ago, before courts existed matters was handled in a privately or informally. This often led to violence and unjust treatment of innocent people. During the rise of the Greek City States and the Roman Empire law enforcement became a public affair instead of private. (Siegel, Schmalleger, & Worral, 2011). Along with this movement became formalized courts and other criminal justice institutions. This allowed for law enforcement matters to be handled in a more civilized manner for resolving human conflict.

Other cases that were observed through court visits further emphasised the nature of the judicial process in the Local Courts. The summary proceedings served in a number of cases to emphasise the triviality of the process. Cases involving minor offences such as traffic offences and petty theft were particularly trivial however other cases such as domestic violence and minor assault charges were not so inconsequential. They were of particular importance to the parties involved and it is thus important not to overgeneralise the process of the lower courts to being mere triviality. Whilst in the local courts there was an emphasis on speed and efficiency, this did not automatically mean that strict legality was disregarded. The importance placed on evidence and onus on the prosecutors in providing proof upheld important elements of the criminal justice system.

The Victorian Court System was made up of many different parts, including the three different courts, the different juries, and the lawyers. There were three different courts: the Petty Court, the Assize Court and the King’s/Queen’s Bench. Each of the three courts functioned to serve a different purpose, and worked together to hold all of the trials. There were also different court sessions, which included Petty Sessions, Quarter Sessions, Borough Sessions, and City Councils, all of which served different purposes. In addition to the courts and court sessions, there were also the two different juries and the different lawyers. All of these components of the court were very important to the trials, and made the court what we know it as today.

Explain and critically consider the use of lay magistrates in the legal system of England and Wales.

Now that we have a general understanding of Criminal Law, we can begin our comparison. For this comparison, I have chosen to compare the Criminal Justice systems of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Thought these two countries have differences in their systems, they also share some similarities. In the USA, states have defined their own individual laws and maintain individual court systems. The UK has a similar situation with laws determined and courts maintained by areas such as Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to name a few. Both systems utilize the common law or case law system. This means that the prior judgments of courts will help decide current and future cases as well. One glaring difference is the Constitution we have in the United States. The UK does not have a Constitution or a central document like this to draw legislation from and use as a guide the way we do in this country. In the US, all our laws must abide by the Constitution and not violate our rights defined in this important document. The UK relies strictly on legislation and case

The state trial courts of general jurisdiction are the district courts. The district court has exclusive jurisdiction on felony cases, as well as divorce cases, cases involving title to land, and election contest cases. It shares jurisdiction with the county courts, and in some case justice of the peace courts, for civil cases the lowest limit for hearing a case is a mere $200 in controversy, while in Justice of the Peace courts can hear cases up to $5,000. In a "catchall" provision it hears all cases in which jurisdiction is not placed in another trial court.

The courts of the United Kingdom are institutions there are aim justice to all and deliver fair and equal trails. Although ‘fair and equal’ are not always true to some cases along with ‘justice to all’. Never the less either convicting someone for unlawful activity or resolving a civil dispute, the British legal system employs a variety of courts in its application of the law. It much reminds me of my home country the United States the different level of courts I mean. Magistrates courts have the jurisdiction to try minor offences then for more serious offences are referred to the Crown courts. There are also appellate courts, which include the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court; formally known as the House of Lords. To

     In his book on ?The Behavior of Law? Donald Black attempts to describe and explain the conduct of law as a social phenomenon. His theory of law does not consider the purpose, value, impact of law, neither proposes any kind of solutions, guidance or judgment; it plainly ponders on the behavior of law. The author grounds his theory purely on sociology and excludes the psychology of the individual from his assumptions on the behavior of law (Black 7). The theory of law comes to the same outcome as other theories scrutinizing the legal environment, such as deprivation theory or criminal theory; however, the former concentrates on the patterns of behavior of law, not involving the

According to Reference.com (2007), law is defined as: “rules of conduct of any organized society, however simple or small, that are enforced by threat of punishment if they are violated. Modern law has a wide sweep and regulates many branches of conduct.” Essentially law is the rules and regulations that aid in governing conduct,

Law can be defined as the written agreement that a society agrees upon this dictates appropriate and acceptable conduct and behaviour we display toward each other. Law is the foundation of the society it can only work if the society abides by it and work to maintain its existence, this will help solve any problems and crimes.