THE ROLES OF THE COURTS, THEIR
ALTERNATIVES AND PERSONNEL IN
CONTRIBUITING TO CASE OUTCOMES
Louie Palmer
U00056968
,Introduction
In this report I will be explaining the jurisdiction of courts and their
alternatives. Furthermore, I will show how this contributes to the three case
examples. I will also explain the role of the legal profession and lay people, I
will also show how these contribute to the three case examples.
, Meaning, purpose and terminology of law
One thing that the law consists of are rights and duties. A duty can also be
called an obligation and is something that citizens are required to do by the
law. Examples of duties include paying taxes and doing your jury duty. Rights
are things that citizens are entitled to or have freedom to do. There can be
laws put in place to assure citizens have access to their rights. The Human
Rights At came in to place in the UK in October 2000 (rights, 2000). Some of
the human rights covered by this Act include right to a fair trial, freedom of
expression, right to education and right to life.
Laws and morality can sometimes be a tough thing to tell apart as they often
overlap. Moral behaviour usually has people’s opinions to say whether it is
right or wrong, unlike laws which uses facts to come to a conclusion whether
they have broken a law or not. Therefore, it is hard to come to a clear decision
whether or not someone’s morale behaviour is acceptable. Obviously, some
things are immoral and illegal such as murder, however, some things are in a
grey area such as cheating on your partner. UK courts do not enforce morals;
however, they do apply values.
Rules are a set of regulations that people must follow. This could include rules
given to students by teachers such as no phones in a lesson. Legal rules are
different as they affect everyone not just a certain set of people (the students).
Although similar to laws, legal rules usually have less severe consequences for
people who break them.
There are many purposes of law including protection, upholding rights,
maintaining order, delivering justice and evaluation of effectiveness of the
legal system.
The law protects you against harmful treatment. Furthermore, fatal and non-
fatal offences against people are seen as crimes. A fatal offence is an offence
that caused death such as murder or manslaughter. A non-fatal offence is an
offence that caused a person harm or an injury, but not death. Another
element of protection is that your belongings are protected, and criminal
damage or theft of your belongings is also seen as a crime. The law also can
protect businesses who have been treated unfairly by other businesses. This
could include protection for fair deals or transactions. Finally, the law can also
protect you by making provision for education and welfare.
Another purpose of law is upholding rights. What this means is that if a person
is deprived of their legal rights, they can take either criminal or civil court
action.