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9084 AS Law — Unit 3: Legal Personnel
9084 AS Law - Unit 3: Legal Personnel: - Judges - The Legal Professions - The Jury - Magistrates
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Law 9084Unit 3: Legal Personnel
Notes prepared by: Sonia Lee
Table of Contents
Page No.
1. Judges 2-6
2. The Legal Professions 6-11
3. The Jury 12-17
4. The Magistrates 18-23
Prepared by: Sonia Lee
,Judges
Introduction
• Under the rule of law, judges are expected to deliver judgements in an impartial manner,
without allowing any personal preferences to affect their decision-making.
• The judges play a vital but sensitive role in controlling the exercise of power by the state
through judicial review procedure.
• Human Rights Act 1998 -> significantly increased the powers of the judges to control the
work of the Parliament & the executive.
Judicial Hierarchy
• The judges are at the centre of any legal system, as they sit in court & decide the cases.
• The head of the judiciary is the President of the Courts of England and Wales.
• This position was created by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (CRA).
• S.7 of the CRA -> President’s role is to represent the views of the judiciary to the Parliament
and to Government Ministers.
Appointment of Judiciary
The old appointment Procedures
• Prior to the 2005 Act, the Lord Chancellor played a central role in the appointment of
judges.
• Lords of Appeal in Ordinary & Lords of Justice of Appeal -> appointed by the Queen on the
advice of Prime Minister, who in turn was advised by the Lord Chancellor.
• High Court judges, circuit judges and recorder -> appointed by the Queen on advice of the
Lord Chancellor.
• The old system achieve limited result, due to the fundamental problem:
o The Lord Chancellor played a central role in the appointment process.
o He is also a politician & could be swayed by political factors in the selection of
judges.
• However, the system has no longer commands public confidence, and is increasingly hard to
reconcile with the demands of Human Rights Acts 1998.
The current appointment procedures
• The Judicial Appointment Committee (JAC) was established by the Constitutional Reform
Act (CRA) 2005, responsible for a new judicial appointment process.
• Aim
o to put an end to the breaches of the principle of the separation of powers
o reinforce judicial independence.
• Candidates must be selected on the basis of merit & be of good character.
• In part 2 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 contains provisions to try to
widen the pool of lawyer eligible to become judges.
• Under the 2007 Act, eligibility is no longer based on the number of years candidates have
had rights of audience before a court but rather on the number of years’ post-qualification
experience.
• Number of years’ experience required ↓
o from 7 to 5 years & 10 to 7 years, depending on the seniority of the judicial office.
• Following the Act, the Lord Chancellor issued regulations stating that the qualifications of a
legal executive is sufficient for judicial appointment in the county courts, magistrates’ court
& tribunals.
Prepared by: Sonia Lee
, • Government lawyers are now allowed to become judges.
o They are able to sit as civil recorders, deputy district judges in magistrates’ court &
tribunal judges, provided their own departments is not involved in the case.
o This is a major development, since such lawyers have a wide range of background,
with women & ethnic minorities well represented & majority are state-educated.
• In practice, appointment to the Supreme Court tend to be made from people with
experience of being a judge in the Court of Appeal, although is not a legal requirement.
• A Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman now oversees the recruitment process
& has the power to investigate individual complains about judicial appointment.
• Under s.64 of CRA 2003, the JAC must have regard to encourage diversity in the range of
persons available for selection of appointment.
• The Crime and Courts Act 2013 introduced a range of reforms to the appointment process
o increase diversity
o further reduce the role of the Lord Chancellor.
• Where two candidates are of equal merit, the committee can appoint the candidate from a
minority background to increase judicial diversity.
Judicial Selection in other countries
France
• Preferred that individuals become a judge at an early age & are specifically trained for the
job.
• The judiciary is organised on a hierarchy basis
• Junior judges will start with less serious cases and work up through the system as they gain
experience.
United state
• Two basic methods of selection: appointment & election, although a compromise between
the two methods is often made.
• All federal judges are appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate,
which includes examining a prospective judge’s character & past life.
• In a number of states, elections are used to confirm in office judges who have been in their
posts for a limited period.
Training
• Training of judges is organised by the Judicial College.
• There are criticism that the training is insufficient. In more recent years, this has been
supplemented in several ways:
1. the advent of the Children Act 1989 has meant that social workers, psychiatrists &
paediatricians have shared their expertise with new judges
2. Concern about the perception of judges as racist, or racially unaware, has led to the
introduction training to prepare for those legal reforms.
• The Strategy of the Judicial College 2018-20 lists judicial training as having 3 elements:
1. Substantive law, evidence, procedure & other expertise
2. Acquisition & improvement of judicial skills including any leadership &
management skills
3. Social context of judging
Improvement
1. Judges could benefit from more training, not just at the beginning of their careers, but
frequent intervals throughout.
Prepared by: Sonia Lee
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