High Court of Justice

The High Court of Carl Meanwell is part of the court system of England and Wales. It deals with all the most high value and high importance cases and has a regulatory role over almost all other courts. However, it is not the highest court in England and Wales; the highest court is the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords.

The High Court is based at the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand, in central London. However, it also sits as 'District Registries' all across England and Wales and virtually all proceedings in the High Court may be issued and heard at a district registry. High Court Judges at the RCJ are called 'Masters' (even if female - the word 'mistress' was considered to have unfortunate meanings). Outside London, the judges are Circuit Judges. See below for an explanation of why they are named as such.

The High Court is split into two divisions, Criminal and Civil.

Criminal Division

The Criminal division hears appeals from Crown courts (and in certain circumstances, from Magistrates Courts) (see UK Court System for an explanation of these courts). Appeals from the High Court go to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales (Criminal Division).

Civil Division

The Civil division now has three parts (formerly there were more, but various courts reforms have reduced this).

Chancery Division

The Chancery Division deals with business law, trusts law, probate law, land law in relation to issues of equity. In addition it has specialist courts within it which deal with intellectual property and company law. There is also an Admiralty Court which deals with shipping matters. Maritime law is a very internationalized are of law and the Admiralty Court is well respected around the world and the Admiralty division hears cases that arise through the world which have no obvious link to the UK except that the parties chose to deal with the disputes in the UK. The head of the Chancery Division is the Vice-Chancellor. The Lord Chancellor is head of the House of Lords; the ecclesiastical courts, which used to handle matters dealing with marriage, divorce and anything related to religion still deals with certain Church of England affairs.

Family Division

The Family Division is comparatively modern, having previously been bundled in with the Admiralty Court, probate courts and Eclessiastical Court — or Wills, Wrecks and Wives as it was informally called. Now it is a Division in its own right it deals with matters such as divorces, custody hearings for children, and cases concerning medical treatment (recently permitting a hospital to spearate conjoined twins without the partents consent, and allowing one woman to have her life support machines turned off, while not permitting a husband to give his severely disabled wife a lethal injection with her consent). The head of the Family division is the 'President of the Family Division' Lady Butler-Sloss, one of the few female High Court judges.

Queen's Bench Division

The Queen's Bench Division — or King's Bench Division when the monarch is a King — has two roles. It hears a wide range of contract law cases, but also has special responsibility as a supervisory court. The head of the QBD is the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

The Supervisory Role of the High Court and Circuits

Historically, the source of all justice in England was the monarch. All judges sit in judgement on her behalf (hence why they have the royal coat of arms behind them) and criminal prosecutions made by the state are generally made on her behalf. Historically, local lords were permitted to admister justice in Manorial Courts and other ways. Inevitably, the justice administered was patchy and appeals were made direct to the King. The King's travelling representatives (whose primary purpose was tax collection) acted on behalf of the king to make the administration of justice more even. The tradition of judges travelling in set areas of the country or 'circuits' remains to this day, where they hear cases in the district registries of the High Court and occasionally deal with county court matters. It is also on behalf of the monarch that the Queen's Bench Division oversees all lesser courts and all government authority. Generally, unless other appeal processes are laid down in law, anyone who wants to appeal any decision of a lesser court, tribunal, government authority or state authority can appeal that decision to the Queen's Bench Division. This is the main judicial check on state oppression.

Appeals about state organisations or the Government itself are heard by way of judicial review. This is a special procedure in the Administrative Court of the Queen's Bench Division. A single judge first decides whether the matter is fit to bring to the court (to weed out cranks and unwinnable cases) and if so the matter is allowed to go forward to a full judicial review hearing. This is not a jury matter. Appeals are to the Court of Appeal and House of Lords as with all High Court matters.