Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England and Wales High Court) for legal citation purposes.

The differences of procedure and practice between divisions are partly historical, derived from the separate courts which were merged into the single High Court by the 19th-century Judicature Acts, but are mainly driven by the usual nature of their work, for example, conflicting evidence of fact is quite commonly given in person in the King's Bench Division, but evidence by affidavit is more usual in the Chancery Division which is primarily concerned with points of law.

A Royal Commission was appointed in 1934 in order to address concerns about delays within the King's Bench Division and to determine whether any reforms would help to alleviate the problems then being experienced.

Until 2005, the Lord Chancellor was the de jure head of the Chancery Division, but appointed a Vice-Chancellor who nominally acted as his deputy.

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 renamed the Vice-Chancellor to Chancellor of the High Court and made him the head of the Division.

The procedure was introduced to enable fast, efficient and high quality dispute resolution of claims related to the financial markets.

[10] The Family Division deals with personal human matters such as divorce, children, probate and medical treatment.

Its decisions are often of great importance only to the parties, but may concern life and death and are perhaps inevitably regarded as controversial.

[11] In 2002 it made a landmark judgement in the case of Ms B v An NHS Hospital Trust regarding the right of mentally competent patients to withdraw from life-saving treatment.

High Court Judges of the Family Division sit at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, while District Judges of the Family Division sit at First Avenue House, Holborn, London.

Peter Kyle, MP for Hove, claimed this amounted to "abuse and brutalisation", and called for the system to be changed.

[14] Liz Truss, when she was Lord Chancellor, announced plans to end this practice, and proposals were contained in Clause 47 of the Prisons and Courts Bill before Parliament was prorogued for the 2017 general election.

The Lord Chancellor, and all government ministers, are statutorily required to "uphold the continued independence of the judiciary",[18] and both Houses of Parliament have standing orders to similar effect.

High Court justices may be removed before their statutory retirement age only by a procedure requiring the approval of both Houses of Parliament.

The tradition continues of judges travelling around the country in set 'circuits', where they hear cases in the 'district registries' of the High Court.