ABSTRACT
A fundamental problem with the civil court system is a product of its history. Justice was the King’s justice. He had to wrest its administration from the feudal lords and centralise it at Westminster. He sent from there his justices to sit at assizes. Justice was, and still is, administered in the name of the sovereign. The court system developed from the top down, with a consequent imperiousness and aloofness. It all became a matter of what those in power thought was desirable and convenient, and had the least adverse effect on their own position or their own operations. In the last 100-150 years, this exclusivity has become more relaxed, in favour of broader considerations and greater access, but the system has not, here or in England, become fully democratic. The system has been imposed from on high. The way in which, and the people through whom, access to the justice system can be obtained have always been prescribed.
