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The Senior Courts Act 1981 (c.54), originally named the Supreme Court Act 1981, is an Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...
. The Act prescribes the structure and jurisdictions of the
Senior Courts of England and Wales The courts of England and Wales, supported administratively by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in England and Wales. The United Kingdom does not have a ...
(previously known as the "Superior Courts"). These Senior Courts comprise: the
Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
,
High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC ( Engl ...
, The
Employment Appeal Tribunal The Employment Appeal Tribunal is a tribunal in England and Wales and Scotland, and is a superior court of record. Its primary role is to hear appeals from Employment Tribunals in England, Scotland and Wales. It also hears appeals from decision ...
, and the
Crown Court The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some either way offences and appeals lied to it by the magistrates' courts. It is one of three Senior Courts of England and W ...
.


Change of name

The
Constitutional Reform Act 2005 The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relevant to UK constitutional law. It provides for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to take over the previous appellate jurisdiction of the Law L ...
established a new
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
which, on 1 October 2009, replaced the
Appellate Committee of the House of Lords Whilst the House of Lords of the United Kingdom is the upper chamber of Parliament and has government ministers, it for many centuries had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers, for impeachments, ...
. To avoid confusion, the Supreme Court Act 1981 was renamed the Senior Courts Act 1981, and all statutory references to the Supreme Court of England and Wales were amended to refer to the Senior Courts of England and Wales. The former term "Supreme Court" did not mean the 2009 Supreme Court (which, of course, did not exist in 1981), but was shorthand for the "Supreme Court of England and Wales", called before 1981 the "Supreme Court of Judicature", which comprised the "Superior Courts" (as opposed to the "Inferior Courts").


Section 75

The following directions have been given pursuant to section 75(1) by the Lord Chief Justice. They are titled "Classification of the business of the Crown Court and allocation to Crown Court centres": *Practice Direction 9952 All ER 900, 9951 WLR 1083 (26 May 1995) *Practice Direction 9983 All ER 384, 9951 WLR 1244, CA (30 June 1998) *Practice Direction 0001 All ER 380, CA (Crim) (10 January 2000)


Section 84

This section replaced section 99 of the
Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925 The Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925, sometimes referred to as the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1925, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 99 This section was replaced by section 84 of the Supreme C ...
and section 15 of the
Courts Act 1971 The Courts Act 1971 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the purpose of which was to reform and modernise the courts system of England and Wales. It established the Crown Court, introduced the posts of circuit judge and recorder ...
.
Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice ''Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice'' (usually called simply ''Archbold'') is the leading practitioners' text for criminal lawyers in England and Wales and several other common law jurisdictions around the world. It has been in p ...
. 1999. Paragraph 3-8 at page 208.


References

*Civil Procedure (The White Book), Thomson, Sweet & Maxwell United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1981 English law Senior Courts of England and Wales Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England and Wales {{UK-statute-stub