NCJ Number
193000
Date Published
2000
Length
687 pages
Annotation
This review conducted by the British Lord Chancellor in 1999, pursuant to an appointment by the Home Secretary and the Attorney-General, examined the practices and procedures of the British criminal courts, with attention to the degree to which the courts combined fairness with efficiency.
Abstract
As an aid to improvement in the courts' practices and procedures, the review examined their structure, jurisdiction, and management in the context of the criminal justice system as a whole, including the various government departments and agencies involved and their relationship with one another. General criminal justice recommendations were that the criminal law should be codified under the general oversight of a new Criminal Justice Council and that a national Criminal Justice Board replace all the existing national planning and operational bodies. The Board would be the means by which the criminal justice departments and agencies would provide overall direction for the criminal justice system. Regarding the criminal courts, the review recommends that the Crown Court and magistrates' courts be replaced by a unified Criminal Court that would consist of three divisions: the Crown Division, constituted as is the current Crown Court, to exercise jurisdiction over all indictable-only matters and the more serious "either-way" offenses allocated to it; the District Division, constituted by a judge and at least two magistrates, to exercise jurisdiction over a mid-range of "either-way" matters of sufficient seriousness to merit up to 2 years' custody; and the Magistrates' Division, constituted by a district judge or magistrate, to exercise jurisdiction overall summary matters and the less serious "either-way" cases allocated to them. Among the recommendations for juries was that they should be more widely representative of the national and local communities from which they were drawn. The review recommends continuation of the current hierarchy of judges as well as their jurisdictions, subject to recommendations for the establishment of a District Division of a new unified criminal court and extension of the powers of district judges and magistrates. Recommendations were also offered for decriminalization and alternatives to conventional trial, preparation for trial, trial procedures and rules of evidence, and appeals. Appended supplementary information