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Her Majesty's High Court of Justice in England (usually known as the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, the High Court of Justice or, simply, the High Court) is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC for legal citation purposes. The High Court deals at first instance with all high value and high importance cases, and also has a supervisory jurisdiction over all subordinate courts and tribunals, with a few statutory exceptions. It has three main divisions: the Queen's Bench Division, the Chancery Division, and the Family Division. The jurisdictions overlap in some cases, and cases started in one division may be transferred by court order to another where appropriate. The differences of procedure and practice between divisions are partly historical, derived from the separate courts which were merged into the single High Court by the 19th-century Judicature Acts, but are mainly driven by the usual nature of their work, for example, conflicting evidence of fact is quite commonly given in person in the Queen's Bench Division, but evidence by affidavit is more usual in the Chancery Division which is primarily concerned with points of law. Most High Court proceedings are heard by a single judge, but certain kinds of proceedings, especially in the Queen's Bench Division, are assigned to a Divisional Court, a bench of two or more judges. Exceptionally the court may sit with a jury, but in practice normally only in defamation cases or cases against the police. Litigants are normally represented by counsel, but may be represented by solicitors qualified to hold a right of audience, or they may act in person. In principle the High Court is bound by its own previous decisions, but there are conflicting authorities as to what extent. Appeal from the High Court in civil matters normally lies to the Court of Appeal, and thence in cases of importance to the Supreme Court; in some cases a "leapfrog" appeal may be made directly to the Supreme Court. In criminal matters appeals from the Queen's Bench Divisional Court are made directly to the Supreme Court. The High Court is based at the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand in the City of Westminster, London. It has district registries across England and Wales and almost all High Court proceedings may be issued and heard at a district registry. The High Court is headed by the Lord Chief Justice. ==Divisions== The High Court is organised into three divisions: the Queen's Bench Division, the Chancery Division, and the Family Division.〔Williams, Smith (2010). p. 6.〕 ===Queen's Bench Division=== (詳細はmonarch is male — has two roles. It hears a wide range of contract law and personal injury/general negligence cases, but also has special responsibility as a supervisory court. Until 2005, the head of the QBD was the Lord Chief Justice (currently The Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd). A new post of President of the Queen's Bench Division was created under the provisions of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, leaving the Lord Chief Justice as President of the Courts of England and Wales, Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales and Head of Criminal Justice. Sir Igor Judge became the first person to hold this office in October 2005.〔 The Queen's Bench Division has a supervisory jurisdiction over all inferior courts, and its Administrative Court is generally the appropriate legal forum where the validity (but, at least in principle, not the merits) of official decisions may be challenged. Generally, unless specific appeal processes are provided, the validity of any decision of an government minister, inferior court, tribunal, local authority or official body may be challenged by someone with sufficient interest by judicial review in the Administrative Court of the Queen's Bench Division. A single judge first decides whether the matter is fit to bring to the court (to filter out frivolous or unarguable cases) and if so the matter is allowed to go forward to a full judicial review hearing with one or more judges. In addition, the Queen's Bench Divisional Court hears appeals on points of law from the Magistrates' Court〔See ''Challenges to decisions of England and Wales magistrates' courts''.〕 and from the Crown Court.〔See ''Courts of England and Wales'' for an explanation of these courts.〕 These are known as Appeals by way of Case Stated, since the questions of law are considered solely on the basis of the facts found and stated by the authority under review. Other specialised Courts of the Queen's Bench Division include the Technology and Construction Court, Commercial Court, and the Admiralty Court. The specialised judges and procedures of these courts are somewhat tailored to their type of business, but they are not essentially different from any other court of the QBD. Appeals from the High Court in civil matters are made to the Court of Appeal (Civil Division); in criminal matters appeal from the Divisional Court are made only to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「High Court of Justice」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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