EU e-justice portal online/E-Justiz-Portal online

e-Justice Portal – hope I spelt that right. You can change the language, and you can look at topics for all EU Member States.#

For instance, if you click through to Legal professions and justice networks, and then further to legal professions, you get a general page on lawyers, but in the right margin you can click on the relevant flag, and see, for instance for UK, then England and Wales, under The Judiciary:

# Lords Justices of Appeal sit in the Court of Appeal, which deals with both criminal and civil cases.
# High court judges sit in the High Court, where the most complex civil cases are heard. They also hear the most serious and sensitive criminal cases in the Crown Court (for example, murder).
# Circuit judges normally hear criminal, civil and family cases.
# District judges deal with civil law cases. Most of their work is conducted in chambers (not in open court trials). They also have the power to try any action in a county court, with a sanction below a specified financial limit (which is reviewed from time to time): cases above the limit are generally heard by a circuit judge. District judges dispose of more than 80 percent of all contested civil litigation in England and Wales.
# District judges (magistrates’ courts) – formerly known as ‘stipendiary magistrates’. They sit in magistrates’ courts and deal with the types of cases dealt with by magistrates (see below). However, they assist particularly in cases dealing with lengthier and more complex matters.
# High court masters and registrars are procedural judges who deal with the majority of the civil business in the Chancery and Queen’s Bench divisions of the High Court.

Resetting the language (on the Home page) gives this:

# Lords Justices of Appeal (Richter am Court of Appeal): Sie beschäftigen sich am Court of Appeal mit straf- und zivilrechtlichen Fällen auf der Rechtsmittelinstanz.
# High Court Judges (Richter am High Court): Die Richter am High Court verhandeln schwierige Zivilsachen und übernehmen schwere und heikle Strafsachen des Crown Court, beispielsweise Mordfälle.
# Circuit Judges (vorsitzende Richter am Crown Court bzw. County Court): Sie verhandeln in der Regel Straf-, Zivil- und Familiensachen.
# District Judges (Richter am County Court): Sie sind mit Zivilsachen befasst. Ein Großteil ihrer Tätigkeit wird im richterlichen Dienstzimmer (nicht in öffentlichen Verhandlungen) verrichtet. Sie sind zur Verhandlung sämtlicher Fälle vor einem County Court berechtigt, solange deren Streitwert unter einer vorgeschriebenen, von Zeit zu Zeit angepassten Grenze liegt. Fälle, die diese Grenze überschreiten, werden im Allgemeinen von einem Circuit Judge verhandelt. Die District Judges erledigen über 80 % aller streitigen Zivilrechtsprozesse in England und Wales.
# District Judges (Richter am Magistrates’ Court): Die District Judges an Magistrates’ Courts (früher Stipendiary Magistrates genannt) verhandeln dieselben Fälle, wie sie auch von den dortigen Laienrichtern (siehe unten) verhandelt werden. Ihnen werden vor allem die etwas längeren und komplexeren Fälle übertragen.
# High Court Masters und Registrars (zuständig für Vorverfahren am High Court): Sie bearbeiten einen großen Teil der Zivilsachen, die in der Chancery Division und der Queen’s Bench Division des High Court im Vorverfahren anfallen.

I found it a bit odd that they don’t mention the Supreme Court justices, isn’t it? I know the House of Lords was always a separate institution, but still. It does say:

You can find information about the judiciary in England and Wales on the Judiciary of England and Wales website.

That link gives a 404 Page not found, but at least with further links. And here they are. This page also has nice links like ‘A day in the life of’, although again the justices are not represented there.

I had a look at the German and Austrian equivalent pages in English. Could be useful. Mind you, there is a stiffness about the English texts. And the terminology has to be taken with a pinch of salt – at one point they constantly refer to Länder courts etc., as I do, but the Webseiten der Justizministerien der Länder are rendered The various websites of the county ministers of justice. So one must hope that these versions are not given too much credence.

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