The Courts of the United Kingdom are separated into three separate jurisidictions, the Courts of England and Wales, Courts of Scotland and the Courts of Northern Ireland, as the United Kingdom does not have a single unified judicial system.
However, in the area of immigration law, the respective jurisdictions of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and the Special Immigration Appeals Commission cover all of the United Kingdom; in employment law, Employment tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal have jurisdiction in the whole of Great Britain (i.e., not in Northern Ireland).
The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 created a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to take over the judicial functions of the House of Lords and devolution cases from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Supreme Court began work in 2009, and serves as the highest court of appeal in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, and for civil cases in Scotland. The High Court of Justiciary remains the court of last resort in Scotland for criminal cases.
Famous quotes containing the words courts of, courts, united and/or kingdom:
“Courts of law, and all the paraphernalia and folly of law ... cannot be found in a rational state of society.”
—Robert Owen (1771–1858)
“In the U.S. for instance, the value of a homemaker’s productive work has been imputed mostly when she was maimed or killed and insurance companies and/or the courts had to calculate the amount to pay her family in damages. Even at that, the rates were mostly pink collar and the big number was attributed to the husband’s pain and suffering.”
—Gloria Steinem (20th century)
“Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity—an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)