EXAMPLE REFLECTIVE REPORT ON OBSERVATIONS OF COURT-PROCESS


I visit The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom independently on Tuesday 1st  March 2022 in the Morning Session of Court in the Case of AIC Ltd (Respondent) v Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (Appellant) Case ID UKSC 2020/0206. The Supreme court is the final court of appeal. The final appeal in the supreme court can be done in all United Kingdom civil cases and criminal cases from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They hear the appeal on arguable points of law of general public importance. They concentrate on cases of public and constitutional importance and also maintain the role of the highest court in the United Kingdom as leaders in the Common law world.

The Supreme court is more limited in power of Judicial review than the constitutional or supreme court of other countries because of the Doctrine of Parliamentary Sovereignty. If legislation for Instance legislation has been found ultra vires to the power in primary legislation allowing it to be made can be overturned in the UK by any court.

In my Visit to the Supreme Court, I also learned that the Supreme court was officially opened at the start of the legal year on 1 October 2009. The Supreme court is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the UK. It is an independent institution that is presided over by twelve independently appointed judges who are known as the Justices of the Supreme court. There is a limit on the number of judges in Section 23 of the Constitutional Reform Act though this rule also allows being amended to further increase the number of judges if a resolution is passed in both Houses of Parliament.

Case in which I was present in the Supreme court of the United Kingdom there were 5 Judges in that case and all 5 Judges were male. The names of the Judges who presents the appeal were Justices Lord Hodge, Lord Briggs, Lord Sales, Lord Hamblen, and Lord Leggatt. The parties Appellant(s) Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and Respondent(s) AIC Ltd present, in that case, were all male and there was one female and they were young as compared to the Judges.

This appeal of AIC Ltd (Respondent) v Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (Appellant) Case ID UKSC 2020/0206 concerns whether the execution of the Court of Appeal's judgment and order should be stayed pending for the resolution of this application for the permission of appeal and if permission is granted, pending the appeal. 

The Legal issues which I observed in this case were:

1        That whether the Appeal’s judgment and order of the execution court should be stayed pending for the resolution of this application to appeal and if permission is granted, pending the appeal.

2        In proposed appeal:

·         After reconsidering an order after it has been made and before it has been sealed what will be the correct approach to an application?  

·         That whether the Court of Appeal erred by interfering in the Judge’s exercise of her discretion about the jurisdiction to reconsider an order

·         That whether FAAN the applicant seeking reconsideration of the order, required relief from sanctions Under the Civil Procedure Rules in circumstances where that relevant order only permitted AIC to apply for enforcement of the arbitral award rather than to enforce it straight away if FAAN fails to comply with the order.

The officials which were present in the court of them were busy with their work. All of them were working according to their work.

 

As Compared to Magistrates' Court when  I visited there 95% of Criminal cases are completed there. Magistrates deal with three kinds of cases:

1        Summary offense

2        Either -way offenses

3        Indictable-only offenses  

Magistrates which were present in the Magistrates’ Court were of mixed gender, age, and ethnicity.

Cases were either heard by

·         2 or 3 Magistrates’

·         and a district judge

 

District Judges are full-time members of the judiciary who hear the cases in the Magistrates' Court. They normally deal with the more complex matters which come before the Magistrates' court. Magistrates are trained volunteers from the local community and unpaid members of their community who work part-time and deal with less serious criminal cases.

 

If a case is in the Magistrates’ Court the Defendant(s) are asked to enter a plea and if they plead guilty or are later found to be guilty the magistrate can then impose a sentence of up to six months imprisonment for a single offense (Total 12 months) or unlimited fine amount. If the defendant(s) is not found guilty then they are judged innocent in the eye of the law and are then free to go if there are no cases against them.

 

The most serious cases are always passed by the Magistrates' Court to the Crown Court e.g. robbery and rape. If a party disagrees with the verdict of the Magistrates’ court they may be able to appeal.

 

If I compare the process of both courts The Supreme Court and Magistrates’ Court the process of the Supreme Court was very good. Each and everything there was very nice. In Magistrates’ Court, there were many people some of them were for providing witness testimony, defending a case, or just supporting someone from the gallery. The Judges of the Supreme Court were notifying every point and they were fully concentrated on the appeal case. The Solicitor and Barristers were also very competent and they know how to present a case.

 

I understand the process very well because many of the things which I have seen in these cases were learned by me before but seeing that process of cases was very good for me. Understanding the procedure of these cases for the people who were present in Court (including parties) was a little tough because normally people did not know the procedure of these cases. The process of the cases was good and it was according to the procedure which I have learned but the process of these cases shall be made easier for the other people who were present for their cases because it was very tough for them to understand such things. There are a lot of things which are related to these cases people do not understand about it so for their understanding it should be made easy for them.