Crown and Magistrates Courts

Heirarchy of Courts

Supreme Court

(House of Lords)

|

Court of Appeal

|

High Court

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|                                       |

Crown Court                  County Court

|                                       |

Magistrates Court               Tribunals

Magistrates and County courts are at the bottom of the heirarchy (as well as tribuals). Trials from magistrates can be referred up to the Crown court, then High Court, then court of Appeal, then Supreme Court. Despite being based in the House of Lords, it has its own judges - 12 justices - who are a part of the House. That is to say, the House of Lords in its entirety doesn't act as part of the court.

Sources of Law

• Common Law: This is law effective over the entirety of
• the United Kingdom (which is what makes it 'common'. This extends to 
• Precedent: Judges set precedent in the way they apply common law. This works in a top-down fashion, so while a magistrates court judge can make a ruling, if the case is appealed in the crown court, that crown court judge can overturn the magistrates' judgement. This goes all the way up to the Supreme Court, whose decisions are binding and set precedent on all future cases of the same nature. However, the Supreme Court can overturn its own, previous precedent. The court ruling that the website The Pirate Bay is an example of this.
• Statutes: These are acts of parliament which have a binding effect on the law. 
• European Union laws: the major one is the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees a right to life, freedom from torture and freedom of expression. Article 10 of the convention is particularly important to journalists as it guarantees "the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority."
• This reinforces the 'public interest' defence (McNae's calls it a defence, though I understand Chris Horrie's stance that this is a prerequisite of journalism, not a defence). If a story has the merit of being beneficial to society, the journalist can get away with breaking the law to get it. E.G. corruption exposé or scandals like the expense scandal would be very difficult to publish if journalists could be convicted for trying to bring the stories to the public's attention.

Magistrates Courts

Magistrates courts are the lowest level in the court hierarchy as regards criminal cases. The court deals with lesser crimes such as drink driving or speeding. These are considered summary offences. There is no jury present for summary cases and the magistrates court is limited to giving 6-month sentences. They can give 12-month sentences as well, in the case of giving two consecutive sentences for multiple crimes.

If a crime is too large for a the court to deal with it can be referred up to the crown court, but all criminal cases go through this court first.

Crown Courts

A case too large for the magistrates goes up to the crown courts. The crown court deals with indictable offences - these are offences which can be punished the most severely, such as murder and rape. It is the crown court's function to sentence such offences, and only in the case that they are appealed does it go up to next branch of the court hierarchy. 

In all cases, for someone to be convicted they must be proven to be guilty 'beyond all reasonable doubt'. This is the different from civil law, where someone must only be guilty 'within the balance of probabilities' to be convicted. However civil law is also less damaging, as a civil case can only punish a person found guilty financially, whereas crown courts have the power to sentence a defendant to life imprisonment.