Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition of ‘The Machinery of Justice in England’
- Abbreviations
- I Historical introduction
- II Civil jurisdiction
- III Tribunals
- 13 The creation of tribunals
- 14 The Franks Committee
- 15 Tribunals today
- 16 The distinction between ministers' decisions, tribunals and law courts
- 17 Control by the law courts
- 18 The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
- IV Criminal jurisdiction
- V The personnel of the law
- VI The European dimension
- VII The cost of the law
- VIII Law Reform
- Appendix A The Report of the Civil Justice Review
- Table of Cases cited
- Table of Statutes cited
- Table of Stationery Office publications cited
- Index
13 - The creation of tribunals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition of ‘The Machinery of Justice in England’
- Abbreviations
- I Historical introduction
- II Civil jurisdiction
- III Tribunals
- 13 The creation of tribunals
- 14 The Franks Committee
- 15 Tribunals today
- 16 The distinction between ministers' decisions, tribunals and law courts
- 17 Control by the law courts
- 18 The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
- IV Criminal jurisdiction
- V The personnel of the law
- VI The European dimension
- VII The cost of the law
- VIII Law Reform
- Appendix A The Report of the Civil Justice Review
- Table of Cases cited
- Table of Statutes cited
- Table of Stationery Office publications cited
- Index
Summary
The courts described in the last chapter are commonly known as the ordinary courts, a phrase that has been used in legislation but has not got a statutory definition: it is assumed that everyone who has to deal with legal affairs is acquainted with the system of county courts, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords for civil matters and magistrates' courts and the Crown Court for criminal matters: they are just ‘the courts’. The system covers all the country and all the courts have a wide jurisdiction. In contrast, England for centuries had a number of courts that were local or that dealt with ‘special matters’. A ‘court’ was a place for doing business of a public nature, judicial or otherwise, and wherever we find places with any peculiar standing (Royal Forests, Staple Towns, Cinque Ports) or certain industries (lead mining in the Mendips, tin mining in Devon and Cornwall) or classes of men differentiated from the general population (merchants, soldiers, ecclesiastics) we find historically a special body of law with special courts. The development of the courts described in earlier chapters resulted in most of the special jurisdictions becoming absorbed in the common law system. Courts-martial and ecclesiastical courts are the chief survivors of the ancient special courts.
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- Information
- Jackson's Machinery of Justice , pp. 107 - 111Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989