ABSTRACT
A sound knowledge of the civil and criminal court structure is essential for a proper understanding of many aspects of the English legal system. The number of cases committed/sent for trial to the Crown Court in 2010 was 97,700, the same as in 2009. The court performance of Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advocates has also shown an overall decline over two years. One expected quality of the court at apex of pyramidal court structure is finality of judgment. The possibility of the Supreme Court changing its previous decisions is a recognition that law, whether expressed in statutes or cases, is a living, and therefore changing, institution which must adapt to the circumstances in which, and to which, it applies if it is to retain practical relevance. High credit can be earned by demonstrating an understanding of the subtleties of what, socially or jurisprudentially, leads the highest court to regard an earlier decision as not technically wrong but definitely requiring correction.
