Overview Of Uk Legal System Law Constitutional Administrative Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

http://www.google.co.uk/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://www.praxisartsandhealth.org.uk/uploads/images/Staffs-Logo_large.jpg&sa=X&ei=M0eMTqicFM6a1AXhuvXjBQ&ved=0CAoQ8wc&usg=AFQjCNEBFM3nn1fPVkBW_Y26g7_ntzuYaA

CE01232-7

Expert Witness Testimony

And

Digital Evidence Presentation

UK and European legal system

VELAYUTHAM SELVARAJ

MSC DIGITAL FORENSICS AND CYBERCRIME ANALYSIS

Staffordshire University

Award Leader: HATEM TAMMAM

3rd May

Word Count –

Contents

Introduction:

UK and Northern Ireland is divided into four different countries where few laws will be applicable for one or more countries as it is divided into England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This report also covers the laws not only for United Kingdom but also the European countries as a whole. We will see a detailed explanation about the type of courts and type of laws applicable for each incident in a real world whether it is a criminal offence or a civil offence. However this might change depending upon the offence after or in the middle of a investigation. European law is the highest law when it comes to European matters of justice.

Review of Legal System

Criminal cases are handled only by crown court after its appealed from magistrates court. However Magistrate court handles both criminal and civil cases depending upon the case.County courts handle only Civil cases and cant be passed to magistrate court. Magistrate court is the first level for criminal cases and While the county courts is the first level for Civil cases.If the person is not satisfied with the decision taken by the county court he can escalate the case to High court which is the next level.Like wise it can be escalated to court of appeal and the last supreme power is Supreme court.In the year 1999 the house of lords has been dissolved so that the highest power now resisdes with the supreme court.Courts can also give a punishment like combining two punishments(unpaid community work and fine).

Overview of UK legal system

The UK legal system is based on common laws with its origin from Roman law and the Anglo-Saxon law. Legislative law has different categories which are popularly known to be as Acts of Parliament followed by its own priority in rank. "Statutory law consists of primary legislation and its subordinate legislation which mostly has statutory instruments (also known as regulations, secondary or delegated legislation) made by Parliament"( loc.gov 2012) .

England and Wales Legal System

Figure - UK Legal System

Magistrate Court

HM Courts & Tribunals Service

HM courts and Tribunals Service are integrated into one agency for the ministry of justice. It was created on 1 April 2011.It provides support for the administration justice in courts and tribunals." It uniquely operates as a partnership between the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals as set out in our Framework Document."(justice.gov.uk, 2013). The firm is answerable for the management of the criminal, common and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales and non-regressed tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It accommodates a honest, powerful and viable equity framework conveyed by an autonomous legal. Refer appendix A for more descriptive information.

County Court

County courts are also known as small claims court. County court deals with civil cases of an individual or business related cases where they feel their product is misused or infringed. The civil cases includes pub licensing which could also be dealt with the magistrates. Certain county courts deal with bankruptcy and insolvency matters where the values should be no more than £30,000.About the judges and their sentences refer Appendix A.1 .

Crown Court

The crown court deals with the serious crimes like robbery, rape and murder. It also hears the appeal for the cases which is from Magistrates court. The appeals from the magistrate court are heard by a judge whereas the cases which are directly driven into crown court are heard by the jury sometimes also with a judge. The jury has 12 members. The jury are public members and they are considered to be witnesses. Crown court originates from the magistrate court. The jury decides whether the person who is charged is considered guilty or not and the sentence is made by the Judge.

Crown court can give sentences like

Community sentences

Prison Sentences

See Appendix A1.1for descriptive information on community and prison sentences

High Court

High court which is usually also known as the High Court of Justice, High Court Of Justice of England and wales. It was established in the year 1985.The high court sits at the Royal courts of justice. High court hears cases of high importance and value. The proceedings are usually heard by one judge but most cases the proceeding are heard by one or more judges which is assigned to a divisional court.

The three main divisions of high court are

Chancery

Queen Benches Division (QBD)

Family

Supreme

The Supreme Court would be the last court of overall appeal in the united kingdom for criminal cases, along with for felony situations from Britain, Wales along with Upper Eire. This hears to the situations of the very best open public or constitutional relevance influencing a large population

North Ireland Legal system

The North Ireland law is also called as North Irish law which is based on common law jurisdiction. It consists of constitutional law, common law and statute. The constitutional law of Ireland is the highest law of Republic, all other laws are derives their authority from this constitutional law.The North Ireland’s common law is little similar to the England and Wales, but there are some variations in procedure and law between north Ireland and England and Wales. The present statute law comprises of act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. In this north Ireland law judges are allocated by the president. These allocated judges can be removed from the office for incapacity or misbehavior. The formation of Irish law reflects different parliament and Irish history.

Different Types Of Courts in Northern Ireland

District Court.

Circuit Court.

High Court and

Supreme Court

District Court

The district court is the one of the type of north Ireland courts. In north Ireland every court has a separate court system depends on the laws and procedure. District court is the lowest court in north Ireland. It handles some civil actions and criminal cases like speeding, drunk and drive and assaults.

Types of District Court

The Children Court

Drug Treatment Court

The Children Court

The children court is the part of district court which deals with child parent or young child cases. In Waterford, limerick and cork the children court deals with accuse aligned with children under the age 16.

Drug Treatment Court

Drug treatment court is located in Dublin city. It is the specialist court where they handles drug addict cases. The main aim of this court is provide the control treatment for lawbreakers Who are involved in drugs.

Circuit Court

Circuit court deals with both civil and criminal cases. It runs under the regional basis. The circuit handles family cases like divorce and some liquor licensing case. The civil cases which are handling by circuit court do not exceed € 38,000. It also deals with criminal cases like murder and rape.

Types of Circuit Court

The Special Criminal Court

Central Criminal Court

The Special Criminal Court

The special criminal court always deals with criminal cases like terrorist organizations. Some times the ordinary courts are unable to deal with some criminal cases. In that time the special criminal court takes over the case. It consists of three judges.

Central Criminal Court

The central court deals only serious criminal cases like murder and rape when the circuit court We're unable to deal. It was located in Dublin but it has traveled to different locations including Seligo, limerick and castlebar.

High Court

High Court is the highest court it deals with pending cases that was unable to dealt with above courts. High court has all the power to handle all types of criminal cases and civil cases.

Supreme Court

Supreme Court is the highest court in the north Ireland. Which handles appeal from high court and court of criminal appeal. The criminal conviction appeals in court of criminal appeal. The supreme court has the rights to provide rulings.

Scotland Legal System

The Scotland legal system has a complex history. The most primitive influences on legal Scotland incorporated Norse law, welsh law and native custom. The law in Scotland has been subjected by a extensive range of sources.

The feudal system of land tenure was introduced based on the basic version of the English system. As time passed on, political achievements in Europe led to the structure of an association between France and Scotland next to England.

In 14th century legal system in Scotland became the dominant power in France and other European countries. Because of this dominant power the legal system in Scotland was much closer to the continental legal system. The continental legal system is based on the Roman law. In the year 1532 the court of session was recognized, this provided Scotland with supreme court staff by qualified judges.(open.edu ,15june 2011) The changes in social and politics saw the erosion of the power of the church of Rome during the 16th century.

Different Types of Court in Scotland

File:ScottishCourts09-B.PNG

Civil Courts

Sheriff Court

Sheriff Court deals with a housing problem in the local area. It used to the be the house of Lords which is the constituent of the UK parliament.

In October 2009, the role of higher courts in the UK was taken over by the UK supreme court. Since, 31st July 2009 House Of Lords is not the highest court. The cases from Scotland used to go to UK supreme court since, house of lords has been stopped.

We might also come across Scottish land court and land tribunal for Scotland. These are the courts where we can deal some arguments crafting law and agricultural tenancies. There are some similarities between both courts like same office but they deal with different cases.

Court Of Session

The Court of Session is the supreme civil court. It sits in Parliament house in Edinburgh and deals with both Court of appeal and court of first instance. The Court of appeal is known as Inner house and the court of first instance is called as Outer house.

Criminal Courts

Sheriff Court

The sheriff court is also a criminal court in local area. The solemn is the procedure which is followed by Sheriff courts. In summary cases maximum penalty 12 months imprisonment or £ 10,000 fine but, in solemn cases 5 years imprisonment or limitless fine.

District Courts

District courts are under summary procedure in local area were introduced in 1975. This district court deals with different types of cases like petty theft, minor assaults, drunkenness, offences under civic government and breach of the peace. In district court penalties are low when compare to other courts. Which may be 60 days imprisonment or £ 2,500 Fine.

Justice of the Peace

Justice of the peace deals with offenses like theft, assault, drunken misorderly behavior and motor offenses. Here justice of the peace is a lay person hearing the criminal case. Most justice of the peace is not legally qualified but if they are legally qualified they are not supposed to act in any proceedings in the court within their own sheriffdom.The justice of the peace can impose 60 days of imprisonment and a fine no more than £2,500. Few JP courts in Glasgow are led by a qualified Stipendiary Magistrate.The Stipendiary Magistrate can impose an imprisonment of twelve months and a fine no more than  £10,000.

High court of justiciary

High court of justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. It is a both court of appeal and court of instances. As a court of appeal, the high court it contains only in Edinburgh. But court of first instance mainly contains in former sheriff court in Lawnmarket, in dedicated premises at the saltmarket in Glasgow.

IMPORTANT DATES IN THE LEGAL HISTORY OF SCOTLAND

Special Courts And Tribunals

Tribunals

Govt handles numerous issues with our day-to-day existence, making choices regarding personal people. ‘Administrative justice’ involves the particular techniques for making such choices, legal issues which handles decision-making, plus the programs (such because the numerous tribunals and also ombudsmen) which help visitors to obstacle these types of choices.

Tribunals furthermore sit with Scotland, covering a variety of subjects which includes employment, education, children's hearings, social security and tax. These tribunals sit in several areas all over Scotland, although the majority of cases is usually observed within the major centers involving population, primarily Edinburgh and also Glasgow.

Children Hearings

The children hearings court is the specialist system which handles most of the criminal cases concerning under 16 in Scotland. Some serious crimes are still handling by the usual crime courts.

Court of The Lord Lyan

The court of Lord Lyan is headed by Lord Lyan. He is king of arms and herald for Scotland. The court of the Lord Lyan is responsible for both civil and criminal cases of armorial bearings. It is a standing court of heraldry and genealogy.

Supreme Court Of UK

Supreme Court of UK is the highest court of appeal in Scotland. It was created by Constitutional reform act 2005. All the civil courts of the UK and criminal courts of England and Wales and Northern Ireland can appeal in the Supreme Court of UK. The house of Lords was the only appeal lay until the creation of the Supreme Court of UK. The judicial functions of House of Lords and devolution jurisdiction had been taken over by the Supreme Court of UK on 1st October 2009.

European Court System

The General Court

The general court is the European Union (EU) test court of general jurisdiction. It deals with

various types of cases such as the case from institution of European Union or private parties against some agents, actions related to EU trademarks and actions against the commission. It also handles the appeal decision by civil service tribunals.In this general court the judges are from member states and it consists of 27 judges. They serve for six years and they would be appointed by government of member states. General court usually sits with 3 to 5 judges for normal cases but for some special cases it looks like grand chamber with 13 judges.

The European Court Of Justice

The European court of justice is the final court of appeal for all the cases and it’s the highest court in European court system. It deals with many cases such as action to failure act against institution of EU, action for annulment seeking to invalidate a regulation by EU. It also deals with reference case for preliminary rulings by national courts and appeals made by general court. As like general court European court of justice also consists of 27 judges. They serve for 6 years and they will be appointed by member states. In some special kind of cases ECJ looks like grand chamber with 13 judges.

The Civil Service Tribunal

The civil service tribunal was established in 2005. The root cause of this tribunal is to determine dispute between members of civil service and EU. It deals with all types of disputes such as disputes between European investments bank and Europol. It consists of 7 judges appointed by council.

Overview of Carbon Credit Thieves Case

Nowadays thieves only requires few minutes or seconds to filch the credit card details. William Noonan, the criminal investigator in US says "Back in the beginning, they will get the indentation of card details from carbon copies". The SOCA plays a major role in UK. It stands as a serious organized crime agency. The SOCA is a national law enforcement agency which is responsible for investigating, monitoring and getting the public complaints. Credit card based scam is often a wide ranging term for theft as well as scams fully committed utilizing a credit card or may be nearly any similar check mechanism as being a fraudulent cause of resources surrounded by a financial transaction. The purpose could be good to get products without paying or to obtain unauthorized funds via free account. The credit cards would be regulated by consumer credit act 1974 in UK which provides the various requirements and protection.

Carbon Credit Thieve Case

The serious organized crime agency (SOCA) investigated the carbon credit thieve case where three men attempted to pilfer the €8 million worth carbon credit cards. It concerned the computer hacking which attacked the websites of banks, financial service companies and carbon credit registries.The persons who were involved in this case have been punished for more than 5 years.The following are the carbon Credit thieve cases handled by SOCA UK. On 12th October 2011, unauthorized transfer of €3.7 million carbon credit cards occurred on Spanish carbon credit registry (RENADE). On 17th November 2011, Matthews Beddoes of Telford, Shropshire aged 32 were arrested by the SOCA due to carbon credit thieves case. This comprised the identity theft, hacking of other websites etc. On 31st may 2012 he pleaded guilty In order to numerous accidents such as money laundering, Spanish registries and fraud offences. On 20th December 2011, Jan deep Singh sangha of abler road was arrested for the two money laundering offence.

On 18th April 2012, jasdeep singh randhawa was arrested for four offences related to Spanish registries.

Sentences for the above cases

On March 18th 2013, as per the actions by the Organized Crime Division of the Crown Prosecution service, Beddoes was punished to 2 years 9 months + additional 9 months. Sangha was sentenced to 12 months suspended two for 2 years and Randhawa was sentenced to 21 months.

How to Protect Credit Cards??

Do not give credit card information through emails, phone or over internet.

Should destroy all the carbon copies from credit card purchase.

Should give the complaint immediately to credit card company or bank as soon as we lost the card or stolen.

Do not use password as family members name or birth date.

Conclusion

Concluding the report it is clear to see that the European legal system is more powerful and independent body.The forensic artefacts gathered from that credit card case brings to an conclusion how the laws acts on the criminals.This brings that the cyber criminals must be penalized severely. The direct comparison between both Legal system is only summarised here but an in-depth analysis would involve delving deep into each legal system to how they act on cyber criminals.

Bibliography