Courts of England and Wales

Except in constitutional matters, committed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom does not generally have a single unified legal system—England and Wales have one system, Scotland another, and Northern Ireland a third.

There are additional exceptions to this rule; for example, in immigration law, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal's jurisdiction covers the whole of the United Kingdom, while in employment law, there is a single system of employment tribunals for England, Wales, and Scotland but not Northern Ireland.

There have been multiple calls from both Welsh academics and politicians for a Wales criminal justice system.

Before the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 this role was held by the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.

[25] The judicial expertise available in the Rolls Building includes asset recovery, banking, commodities, company law, construction, finance, fraud, insolvency and reconstruction.

It also covers information technology, insurance, intellectual property (including patents), international trade, mining, oil and gas, partnership, property, public procurement, regulation, shipping, tax and trusts.

[26] All matters in this list are heard by judges with particular experience in determining disputes in their particular speciality.

It replaced the assizes whereby High Court judges would periodically travel around the country hearing cases, and quarter sessions which were courts held periodically in counties, county boroughs and certain boroughs.

A County Court hearing is presided over by either a district or circuit judge and, except in a small minority of cases such as civil actions against the police, the judge sits alone as a trier of fact and law without assistance from a jury.

Youth courts are presided over by a specially trained subset of experienced adult magistrates or a district judge.

Youth courts are not open to the public for observation, only the parties involved in a case being admitted.

Examples of specialist courts are: The post of coroner is ancient, dating from the 11th century, and coroners still sit today to determine the cause of death in situations where people have died in potentially suspicious circumstances, abroad, or in the care of central authority.

Since the 19th century, the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts has narrowed principally to matters of church property and errant clergy.

Military courts of the United Kingdom include There are two kinds of criminal trials: "summary" and "on indictment".

Despite the possibility of two venues for trial, almost all criminal cases, however serious, commence in a magistrates' courts.

If the magistrates consider that an either way offence is too serious for them to deal with, they may "decline jurisdiction" which means that the defendant will have to appear in the Crown Court.

Conversely, even if the magistrates accept jurisdiction, an adult defendant has a right to compel a jury trial.

Either a group (known as a "bench") of "lay magistrates", or a district judge, will hear the case.

Alternatively, a case may be heard by a district judge (formerly known as a stipendiary magistrate), who will be a qualified lawyer and will sit singly, but has the same powers as a lay bench.

District judges usually sit in the more busy courts in cities or hear complex cases (e.g. extradition).

When it is hearing a trial on indictment (a jury trial) it is treated as a superior court, which means that its decisions may not be judicially reviewed and appeal lies only to the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal.

For personal injury, defamation cases, and in some landlord and tenant disputes, the thresholds for each track have different values.

For nearly 300 years, from the time of the Norman Conquest until 1362, French was the language of the courts, rather than English.

Part II of Schedule 4 to the Administration of Justice Act 1977 curtailed the jurisdiction of certain other anomalous local courts.