ABSTRACT
This part of the English legal system has undergone significant development in recent times. English legal system courses tend to focus too much attention on the operation of the traditional court system. Whilst the courts are of fundamental importance, one should not overlook the increasing importance of alternative methods of deciding disputes. It should never be forgotten that tribunals actually deal with more cases than the county courts and High Court combined. The use of specialist tribunals to decide problems has a long history in England, but it has to be realised that the huge growth in the number of tribunals is a product of the growth of the interventionist welfare state and represents, at one level, an attack on the traditional legal system. These alternative mechanisms may also be seen as highlighting the weaknesses in the adversarial court system, in that they emphasise conciliation over conflict and, to that extent at least, they may well represent an advance on the traditional system of dispute resolution. It should also be borne in mind, however, that such informal procedures themselves are not without weaknesses.
