Court Observation Report

For the purpose of this assignment I visited the Central Criminal Court (‘The Old Bailey’) in London.

The Central Criminal Court was established by the Central Criminal Court Act 1834. It is a component of the Crown Court (the criminal court of first instance), which hears between two and three per cent of all criminal cases, and has an appellate jurisdiction . It replaced the courts of quarter sessions and assizes in accordance with the Courts Act 1971, and forms part of the Supreme Court. The Act also divided England and Wales into six distinct circuits, within which are around 90 Crown Court Centres made up of three tiers. The first tier centres deal with the more serious Crown Court work and High Court civil business. The second tier centres deal solely with Crown Court criminal affairs, and the third tier centres take care of the less serious criminal cases. High Court judges often preside over the first and second tier centres, but do not sit on cases in the third ti...