English Court System: Specific of Evolution in Conditions of “Common Law”

The subject of the article is evolution of the English judicial system. The English judiciary in multi-centurial process of its development, while preserving traditional feature, in various times passed periods of reforms and was considerable modernized.

The issue is actual as at the beginning of 21th century English court system has obtained contemporary shape. The specific of its evolution was determined, in a large degree, by character of the common law. The common law, created and developed by the courts, in the same time has determined an overall direction of the judicial system. The aim of the research is an analysis of the English judicial system specific. It has a lot of peculiarities, especially in a comparison with judiciaries of continental European states. Nonetheless, all the systems mentioned are founded upon common principles, including principles of entrenched constitutionally.

The tasks of research are: to study of the English legislation on judiciary; to clear periods of development of the latter; to check results of every periods of its reforming.

In process of research several methods were implemented. The legislation appropriate was studied on the basis of formal logic method. The historical method was applied for study of overall evolution of system mentioned and for distinguishing periods of its development. The system method has permitted to look at judiciary as a system in general.

The author’s conclusions are the following. Contemporary English judiciary, despite all the reforms, still is loyal to a number of her traditional institutions. Among them are: controversial process; specialization of judges, not of courts; conservation of jury and magistrates. Also, even in present time, it is difficult to distinguish constitutionally English judiciary in the structure of division of powers.

The results of the research may be used in educational and research process.