HIERARCHY OF COURTS

JURISDICTION- ENGLISH AND

INDIAN LEGAL SYSTEM

CATEGORIES OF COURTS

Within the English legal system there are large numbers of courts. They vary from small
courts which have limited jurisdiction over a particular geographical area or a particular type
of dispute, to courts which can hear any case about virtually any aspect of law no matter
where the dispute took place.
I.

CIVIL AND CRIMINAL COURTS- Courts which primarily deal with criminal law
matters are the magistrates courts, crown courts, and the Court of Appeal (Criminal
Division). The Supreme Court also deals with criminal appeals. Some courts deal
primarily with civil law matters (the country court, the High Court, the Court of
Appeal (Civil Division), the Supreme Court.

II.

SUPERIOR COURTS AND INFERIOR COURTS- There is no precise principle

which distinguishes superior and inferior courts. It is generally accepted that the
superior courts are the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the Supreme Court
(and therefore formerly the House of Lords), Court of Appeal, High Court, Crown
Court, Employment Appeal Tribunal, the new Upper Tribunal and the Court of
Protection. However, this list is not entirely complete. Sometimes, other courts are
treated as superior courts for some other purposes.1 The distinction between superior
courts and inferior courts is important for two reasons. First, inferior courts have more
limited powers when imposing sanctions for contempt of court. Second, the work of
inferior courts is subject to judicial review under the supervisory jurisdiction of the
High Court.

III.

REPORTED COURTS- A third distinction that could be drawn between courts, whose
decisions are regularly reported and those courts whose decisions are rarely reported.
It is only those courts whose decisions are reported 2 which can contribute directly to
the development of the law.

1 R Versus Cripps [1984] QBD 68 at p.86, Goff LJ gives the example of the country court exercising
jurisdiction under the Bankruptcy Acts 1883 and 1890 where s. 100 of the 1883 Act gives the country
court all the powers and jurisdiction of the High Court.
2 Any decision which has been reported by a barrister or solicitor with a right of audience in relation
to all proceedings in the Supreme Court or any other person with such a right may be used as a
precedent. Such reports are then published in one of the number of series of law reports.
2

INDIVIDUAL COURTS3

1. The Court of Justice of the European Union- Since the passage of the European
Communities Act in 1972, the United Kingdom has by virtue of the statute, been
subject to European Community Law. At one time, the Supreme Court was the highest
court in the land, for which there was no right of appeal. Membership of the European
Union however entails that there is now a higher court even than this, the European
Court of Justice.
The illustration of its powers was seen in the case of Marshall Versus Southampton and
South West Hampshire Area Health Authority [1994], where Mrs Marshall was a dietician,
working in a hospital, and who reached the age of 60. Her employers allowed her to work
another two years, but then compelled her to retire. She argued that it was very unfair that she
should be forced to retire at 60 when her male colleagues had the privilege of being able to
carry on working until they were 65. Her attempts to resolve this claim in the courts were
destined for frustration as she was bounced from one court to another over a period of 16
years. Eventually, however, the case reached the European Court of Justice, which reached a
verdict in her favour. They stated that to discriminate in the workplace on the basis of gender
was contrary to principles of European law and was therefore illegal.
Mrs Marshall had evidently long since retired before this verdict was reached, and her only
tangible benefit was the compensation that she was awarded. It established an important
principle, though, which has subsequently affected the employment conditions of all women.
Any decision made by the High Court, Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court can be
overturned in an instant by the European Court of Justice; and this represents a fundamental
loss of sovereignty, because it means that control has been largely handed over to a court that
consists almost entirely of foreigners (only one of its members is British).
The ECJ develop, interprets and enforces the law of the EU, it's the highest court in the EU
and it outranks national Supreme Courts but only in those areas of law that are relevant to the
EU (In other words technically and correctly, the most supreme court in the hierarchy of
courts is the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, but only in those areas of law where
the European Union has jurisdiction, or in other words where those areas of law which are
covered by European law). The fundamental idea that lies behind the fact that the ECJ is the
highest court in the hierarchy is the idea that the EU is supranational (it's above the nation's
state), and for this concept to work, there needs to be a court that applies the same body of
law throughout all those countries that are part of the European Union. Hence it follows, does
it not, that the European Court of Justice must have supreme law making power, if you like,
over those areas of law that relate to the European Union. Otherwise the idea of Europe
simply wouldn't work.

3 Fiona Cownie & Anthony Bradney, English Legal System in Context (Sixth Edition)
3

2. The Supreme Court- It came into existence in 2009 as a result of the implementation
of the Constitutional Reform Act, 2005. It exercises the former appellate jurisdiction
of the House of Lords and the former devolution jurisdiction (i.e. matters relating to
devolution within the United Kingdom) of the Privy Council. It is the final court of
appeal within the English legal system.
It is a court of record, a superior court, and a court whose cases are regularly reported.
The establishment of the Supreme Court means that there is a more complete separation
of powers between the judiciary and the legislature, because the judges of the Supreme
Court do not have the right to sit in the House of Lords, when it acts as a legislature. The
Supreme Court consists of 12 Judges, known as Justices of the Supreme Court. Future
appointments to the Supreme Court are governed by the Constitutional Reform Act, 2005,
which created a new selection process to choose future justices of the Supreme Court. The
Supreme Court (formerly the House of Lords) it is the final court of appeal of the whole
of the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) for civil and criminal cases. It
concentrates in cases of great public and constitutional importance.
3. The Court of Appeal- The Court of appeal is a much larger court with a much wider
group of people who can act as judges. Like Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal is
largely an appellate court. Court of Appeal is a court of record, a superior court and a
court whose cases are mainly reported. The important way in which the Court of
Appeal and the Supreme Court are not treated in the same manner is in their freedom
to make new law. The Supreme Court is not bound by its own previous decisions. In
deciding a particular case, it is not forced to come to the same decision that it did in
another case with similar facts, even if that similar case was decided only a very short
time previously. However, the Court of Appeal is bound its own decisions. It is thus
more restricted in its law making.
The Court of Appeal is divided into two divisions i.e. civil division and Criminal division. 4
The Criminal division inherited the jurisdiction of the now defunct Court of Criminal Appeal.
Both divisions are usually multi-judge courts.
4. The High Court- It is a superior court of record whose decisions are frequently
reported. It is a court which has both a substantial appellate and a substantial original
jurisdiction. It now consists of three divisions. These are Chancery Division, the
family division, and the Queens division. In law each of these divisions is part of the
same court but in practice, the different divisions acts as though they were separate
courts. The High Court is normally a single judge court.
The Queen's Bench: these Courts is called such because there is presently a queen on the
throne, if there is a king on the throne it's called the King's Bench Division of the high court.
It deals with actions relating to various different kinds of tort. Torts are civil wrongs in the
4 Senior Courts Act, 1981- Section 3 (1)
4

breach of contract, i.e: Let's say I'm hauling a piano up to a second floor flat on a rope. Let's
say you're walking along the street. But, the rope breaks and the piano falls on your head,
injuring you. Now, you would obviously want to sue me, wouldn't you? We're not in a
contractual relationship. You're walking along the street. I'm holding a piano rope. So there's
no contractual wrong done committed against you. Torts can be wrongs against the person
such as defamation, wrongs against property, such as trespass, or wrongs which may be
against people, or property, such as negligence or nuisance. The QBD also deals with matters
that involve both contract and tort, such as personal injury cases, which show negligence and
breach of a contractual duty of care (where someone has the duty to take care of another).
The QBD can hear appeals from the Magistrates' Court and from the Crown Court, both
criminal courts. The Queen's Bench Division also has a supervisory jurisdiction over cases
from the Magistrates' Court, and the Crown Court acting in its appellate capacity; when the
Queen's Bench Division is exercising its supervisory jurisdiction, it is not strictly acting as an
appeal court, it's performing a different operation called judicial review.
Chancellory: acts on corporate and personal insolvency, business, trade, industry disputes,
enforcement of mortgages, intellectual property matters, copyrights and patents, trust
property and contentious probate actions. It also has a very limited jurisdiction to hear appeal
from the County Courts.
Family division: acts on cases of divorce and custody of children.
5. The Crown Court- The jurisdiction for the Crown Court is found in the Senior Courts
Act 1981. It owes its origin to the Courts Act 1971 which implemented the
recommendations of the Beeching Commission which had reported in 1969. The
Commission recommended the abolition of a number of existing courts and their
replacement by a single new court, the Crown Court. The Crown Court largely
specializes in trying criminal matters. The 1981 Act gives Crown Court exclusive
jurisdiction over all trials brought on indictment. However, the Court is not
exclusively a court with criminal jurisdiction. It can also hear appeals from
magistrates courts in a variety of civil cases. Crown Court cases originate from
Magistrates' Courts, which is why the Crown Court has an appellate jurisdiction over
decisions of the Magistrates Court, in particular, relating to matters of sentence or
conviction. It's also possible for the Magistrates' Court to refer cases to the Crown
Court to be dealt with, for instance if their sentencing powers are too restricted to deal
with the kind of case that that is before them. The Crown Court also has a limited
jurisdiction over civil matters, this includes a limited power to hear appeals from the
Magistrates on civil matters.
6. The County Court- It is a specialized court. The County Courts are first set up under
the County Courts Act 1846. It is predominantly a civil court. The 1846 Act attempted
to set a court jurisdiction that could efficiently deal with minor civil claims. The
County Courts are grouped together into districts, with a single circuit judge being
assigned to each district.

7. Magistrates Court- Deals largely with criminal matters and are inferior courts. The
cases they hear are relatively trivial. Either the offence in itself a minor matter or the
particular incident is of little consequence. They are not courts of record. Their
decisions are rarely reported. They are at the bottom of the hierarchy of courts in the
English legal system. They are also most local of courts. Their location is distributed
through the country in such a way as to make them as physically accessible as
possible.

THE HIERARCHY OF COURTS JURISDICTION