The definition of these terms

 

4.4.2 Appointment process

     The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 makes provision for a new appointment process for Justices of the Supreme Court. A selection commission is to be formed when vacancies arise. This is to be composed of the President and Deputy President of the Supreme Court and a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission of England and Wales, the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland and the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission. In October 2007, the Ministry of Justice announced that this appointment process would be adopted on a voluntary basis for appointments of Lords of Appeal in Ordinary.New judges appointed to the Supreme Court after its creation will not necessarily receive peerages; however, they are given the courtesy title of Lord or Lady upon appointment.The President and Deputy President are appointed to those roles rather than being the most senior by tenure in office.

4.4.3 Current justices

There are currently 12 justices. As of 17 April 2012, the justices, in order of seniority, are as follows:

Name	Born	Alma mater	Sworn in	Mandatory retirement	Prior senior judicial roles
Lord Carnwath	15 March 1945 (age 67)	Trinity College, Cambridge	17 April 2012	15 March 2020	Senior President of Tribunals (2007–2012) Lord Justice of Appeal (2002–2012) High Court Judge (1994–2002)
Lord Clarke	13 May 1943 (age 69)	King's College, Cambridge	1 October 2009	13 May 2018	Master of the Rolls (2005–2009) Lord Justice of Appeal (1998–2005)
Lord Dyson	31 July 1943 (age 68)	Wadham College, Oxford	13 April 2010	31 July 2018	Deputy Head of Civil Justice (2003–2006) Lord Justice of Appeal (2001–2010)
Lady Hale	31 January 1945 (age 67)	Girton College, Cambridge	1 October 2009	31 January 2020	Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (2004–2009) Lord Justice of Appeal (1999–2003)
Lord Hope (Deputy President)	27 June 1938 (age 73)	St John's College, Cambridge University of Edinburgh	1 October 2009	27 June 2013	Second Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (2009) Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (1996–2009) Lord President of the Court of Session (1989–1996)
Lord Kerr	22 February 1948 (age 64)	Queen's University Belfast	1 October 2009	22 February 2023	Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (2009) Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland (2004–2009)
Lord Mance	6 June 1943 (age 68)	University College, Oxford	1 October 2009	6 June 2018	Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (2005–2009) Lord Justice of Appeal (1999–2005)
Lord Phillips (President)	21 January 1938 (age 74)	Kings College, Cambridge	1 October 2009	21 January 2013 (retiring 30 September 2012)	Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (2008–2009) Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (2005–2008) Master of the Rolls (2000–2005) Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (1999–2000)
Lord Reed	7 September 1956 (age 55)	University of Edinburgh Balliol College, Oxford	6 February 2012	7 September 2026	Senator of the College of Justice (1998–present)
Lord Sumption	9 December 1948 (age 63)	Magdalen College, Oxford	11 January 2012	9 December 2018	None
Lord Walker	17 March 1938 (age 74)	Trinity College, Cambridge	1 October 2009	17 March 2013	Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (2002–2009) Lord Justice of Appeal (1997–2002)
Lord Wilson	9 May 1945 (age 67)	Worcester College, Oxford	26 May 2011	9 May 2020	Lord Justice of Appeal (2005–2011)

 

 

4.5 Building

     The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 gave time for a suitable building to be found and fitted out before the Law Lords moved out of the Houses of Parliament, where they had previously used a series of rooms strung out along a corridor in the House of Lords.

     After a lengthy survey of suitable sites, including Somerset House, the Government announced that the new court would be located in the Middlesex Guildhall, in Parliament Square, Westminster. That decision was the subject of an inquiry by a committee of Parliament, and the grant of planning permission by Westminster City Council for refurbishment works was challenged in judicial review proceedings by the conservation group SAVE Britain's Heritage. It was also reported that English Heritage had been put under enormous pressure to approve the scheme. Feilden + Mawson LLP, supported by Foster & Partners, were appointed architects for the project.

The building had formerly been used as a headquarters for Middlesex County Council and the Middlesex Quarter Sessions, and later as a Crown Court centre.

 

 

     4.6 Badge

     The official badge of the Supreme Court was granted by the College of Arms in October 2008. It comprises both the Greek letter omega (representing finality) and the symbol of Libra (symbolising the scales of justice), in addition to the four floral emblems of the United Kingdom: a Tudor rose, representing England, conjoined with the leaves of a leek, representing Wales; a flax for Northern Ireland; and a thistle, representing Scotland.

     Two adapted versions of its official badge are used by the Supreme Court. One features the words "The Supreme Court" and the letter omega in black (in the official badge granted by the College of Arms, the interior of the Latin and Greek letters are gold and white, respectively), and displays a simplified version of the crown (also in black) and larger, stylised versions of the floral emblems; this modified version of the badge is featured on the new Supreme Court website, as well as in the forms that will be used by the Supreme Court. A further variant on the above omits the crown entirely and is featured prominently throughout the building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     5.UNITED KINGDOM LEGISLATURES

     5.1 United Kingdom Parliament

     The Parliament of the United Kingdom is bicameral, with an upper house, the House of Lords, and a lower house, the House of Commons.

 

  5.1.1 The House of Lords

     The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster.

The House of Lords is independent from, and complements the work of, the House of Commons – they share responsibility for making laws and checking government action. Bills can be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Commons and members of the Lords may also take on roles as Government Ministers.

     Unlike the House of Commons, most new members of the House of Lords are appointed. Membership of the House of Lords is made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. There are currently 26 Lords Spiritual, who sit in the Lords by virtue of their ecclesiastical role in the established Church of England. The Lords Temporal make up the rest of the membership; of these, the majority are life peers who are appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

     Membership was once a right of birth to hereditary peers but, following a series of reforms, only 92 members (as of 1 July 2011) sitting by virtue of a hereditary peerage remain. The number of members is not fixed; as of 1 April 2012 the House of Lords has 786 members (plus 21 who are on leave of absence or otherwise disqualified from sitting), as against the fixed 650-seat membership of the House of Commons.

     The role of the House of Lords is primarily to act as a body of specialist knowledge that scrutinises in greater detail bills that have been approved by the House of Commons. It regularly reviews and amends bills from the Commons. While the House of Lords is unable unilaterally to prevent bills passing into law (except in certain limited circumstances), its members can severely delay bills that they believe to be misguided and thereby force the government, the Commons, and the general public to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the Lords acts as constitutional safeguard that is independent from the electoral process and that can challenge the will of the people when the majority’s desires threaten key constitutional principles, human rights or rules of law. In other countries this role would often be performed by a Constitutional Court or a Supreme Court, but the UK system's emphasis on parliamentary sovereignty – rather than judicial review – means that this function cannot be properly accomplished by the British court system as all judicial rulings can be overruled by parliament.

     The Speech from the throne, often known as the Queen's Speech, is delivered from the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament. The House also has a minor Church of England role in that through the Lords Spiritual Church Measures must be tabled within the House.

 

 5.1.2 The House of Commons

     The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords (the upper house). Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members (since the 2010 general election), who are known as Members of Parliament (MPs). Members are elected through the first-past-the-post system by electoral districts known as constituencies. They hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved (a maximum of five years after the preceding election).

     A House of Commons of England evolved at some point in England during the 14th century and, in practice, has been in continuous existence since, becoming the House of Commons of Great Britain after the political union with Scotland, and also, during the nineteenth century, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the political union with Ireland, finally reaching its current title after independence was given to the Irish Free State in 1922.

     The House of Commons was originally far less powerful than the House of Lords, but today its legislative powers greatly exceed those of the Lords. Under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords' power to reject most legislative bills was reduced to a delaying power. Moreover, the Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons; the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains its support. Almost all government ministers are drawn from the House of Commons and, with one brief exception, all prime ministers since 1902.

 

     5.2Northern Ireland Assembly

     The Northern Ireland Assembly (Irish: Tionól Thuaisceart Éireann,[16, p.77] Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann Semmlie) is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive. It sits at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast.

     The latest incarnation of the Assembly was established under the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, an accord aimed at bringing an end to Northern Ireland's violent 30-year Troubles. It is based on the principle of power-sharing under the D'Hondt method to ensure that Northern Ireland's largest political communities, the unionist and nationalist communities both participate in governing the region. The Assembly is a unicameral, democratically elected body comprising 108 members who are known as Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs. Members are elected under the single transferable vote form of proportional representation.

 

5.2.1 Composition of Northern Ireland Assembly

     The Assembly's composition and powers are laid down in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. The Assembly's 108 members are elected from 18 six-member constituencies on the basis of universal adult suffrage. The constituencies used are the same as those used for elections to the Westminster Parliament. The 1998 Act provides that, unless the Assembly is dissolved early, elections should occur once in every four years on the first Thursday in May. However the second election to the Assembly was delayed by the UK government until 26 November 2003. The Assembly is dissolved shortly before the holding of elections on a day chosen by the Secretary of State. After each election the Assembly must meet within eight days. The Assembly can vote to dissolve itself early by a two-thirds majority of the total number of its members. It is also automatically dissolved if it is unable to elect a First Minister and deputy First Minister within six weeks of its first meeting or of those positions becoming vacant. The four elections held to the Assembly so far were the:

• Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1998
• Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003
• Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007
• Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2011

 

     Each MLA is free to designate themselves as "nationalist", "unionist" or "other" as they see fit, the only requirement being that no member may change their designation more than once during an Assembly session. The system has been criticised by some, in particular the cross-community Alliance Party, as entrenching sectarian divisions. The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland supports ending the official designation of identity requirement and the taking of important votes on the basis of an ordinary super-majority.

 

5.2.2 Powers and functions

     The Assembly has both legislative powers and responsibility for electing the Northern Ireland Executive. The First and deputy First Ministers were initially elected on a cross-community vote, although this was changed in 2006 and they are now appointed as leaders of the largest and second largest Assembly 'bloc' (understood to mean 'Unionist', 'Nationalist' and 'Other'). However the remaining ministers are not elected but rather chosen by the nominating officers of each party, each party being entitled to a share of ministerial positions roughly proportionate to its share of seats in the Assembly. The Assembly has authority to legislate in a field of competences known as "transferred matters". These matters are not explicitly enumerated in the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Rather they include any competence not explicitly retained by the Parliament at Westminster.

     Powers reserved by Westminster are divided into "excepted matters", which it retains indefinitely, and "reserved matters", which may be transferred to the competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly at a future date.

 

     5.3 Scottish Parliament

     The Scottish Parliament (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba; Scots: Scots Pairlament) is located in the Holyrood area of the capital Edinburgh. The Parliament, which is informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body of 129 members who are known as Members of the Scottish Parliament or MSPs. Members are elected for four year terms under the Additional Member System of proportional representation. As a result, 73 MSPs represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the plurality voting system ("first past the post"), with a further 56 returned from eight additional member regions, each electing seven MSPs. The original Parliament of Scotland (or "Estates of Scotland") was the national legislature of the independent Kingdom of Scotland and existed from the early thirteenth century until the Kingdom of Scotland merged with the Kingdom of England under the Acts of Union 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. As a consequence, the Parliament of Scotland merged with Parliament of England, to form the Parliament of Great Britain, which sat at Westminster in London.

 

 

6. CONCLUSION

     In this work we spoke about justice, law and legal system of Great Britain. We learnt many things about British legislature. Britain is a country of traditions. The population of this country is very conservative and as a rule, a legal system here is connected with different customs and traditions. For example,  Great Britain is a parliamentary monarchy. It means that there is a Queen (or King) and the Parliament. The Queen has almost no power in the country. Her powers are limited by the Parliament. Laws are made by the Parliament. The Queen is only a formal ruler: she reigns but does not rule. In fact everything that she does is done on the active of her ministers, who are responsible for the royal acts. Thus, most of her functions are symbolic.

     The United Kingdom has three legal systems: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots law, which applies in Scotland. Each system is based on different law principles. English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law, which applies in Northern Ireland, are based on common-law principles. Scots law, which applies in Scotland, is based on civil-law principles. In this work we could read about these principles and know, what do they mean. Common law (also known as case law or precedent) is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals. Civil law is the area of laws and justice that affect the legal status of individuals. Civil law, in this sense, is usually referred to in comparison to criminal law, which is that body of law involving the state against individuals (including incorporated organizations) where the state relies on the power given it by statutory law.

     The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system since it was created by the political union of previously independent countries. Article 19 of the Treaty of Union, put into effect by the Acts of Union in 1707, created the Kingdom of Great Britain but guaranteed the continued existence of Scotland's separate legal system. The Acts of Union of 1800, which combined Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, contained no equivalent provisions but preserved the principle of separate courts to be held in Ireland, of which the part called Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom.

     And when we speak about legal system it is necessary to mention about the courts of Great Britain, its jurisdiction, history and justice. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the highest court in the land for all criminal and civil cases in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and for all civil cases in Scots law. The Supreme Court came into being in October 2009, replacing the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords. In England and Wales, the court system is headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases). The Courts of Northern Ireland follow the same pattern. In Scotland the chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases. Sheriff courts have no equivalent outside Scotland, as they deal with both criminal and civil caseloads.

     To summarize all the information, I can say that Great Britain has a very complicated justice, law and legal system, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t interested about it. It is necessary to know about the legislature of other countries and to respect it, but how we can do it, if we don’t know anything. That is why the aim of this work was to give  the information about justice, law and legal system of The United Kingdom and to help people to understand it better. To my mind, it was reached.