ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the reasons for these tensions in the context of constitutional change, and discuss other issues involving the British judiciary and police forces. Justice in Britain is administered through a complex network of courts which have evolved over many centuries. Magistrates send more serious criminal cases for trial before a judge and jury at the local Crown Court. The Queen’s Bench contains an administrative subdivision which hears cases brought by individuals or organisations against ministers and other public officials who are alleged to have exceeded their statutory powers. Among the many reforms introduced by the post-war Attlee governments was the Legal Aid and Advice Act of 1949, which provided assistance to citizens involved in most criminal cases. In the United States of America (USA), the nine justices of the Supreme Court are able to rule that legislative acts are unconstitutional, and thus null and void.
