The Senior Courts Act 1981 (c. 54), originally named the Supreme Court Act 1981, is an act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

. The act prescribes the structure and jurisdictions of the Senior Courts of England and Wales (previously known as the "Superior Courts"). These Senior Courts comprise: the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal (England and Wales), Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cour ...

, the Employment Appeal Tribunal, and the

Crown Court The Crown Court is the criminal trial court, court of first instance in England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals of the decisions of magistrates' courts. It is ...

Change of name

The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 established a new

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

which, on 1 October 2009, replaced the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords. To avoid confusion, the Supreme Court Act 1981 was renamed the Senior Courts Act 1981, and all statutory references to the Supreme Court of England and Wales were amended to refer to the Senior Courts of England and Wales. The former term "Supreme Court" did not mean the 2009 Supreme Court (which, of course, did not exist in 1981), but was shorthand for the "Supreme Court of England and Wales", called before 1981 the "Supreme Court of Judicature", which comprised the "Superior Courts" (as opposed to the "Inferior Courts").

Provisions

Section 2

Section 2 of the act limited the number of

judges to a number of ex-officio judges and "not more than eighteen ordinary judges". The number of ex-officio judges could vary because it included both the

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

and "any person who has been Lord Chancellor" who might wish to remain as an appellate judge.

Section 75

The following directions have been given pursuant to section 75(1) by the Lord Chief Justice. They are titled "Classification of the business of the Crown Court and allocation to Crown Court centres": *Practice Direction 9952 All ER 900, 9951 WLR 1083 (26 May 1995) *Practice Direction 9983 All ER 384, 9951 WLR 1244, CA (30 June 1998) *Practice Direction 0001 All ER 380, CA (Crim) (10 January 2000)

Section 84

Section 84 of the act replaced section 99 of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925 and section 15 of the Courts Act 1971. Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice. 1999. Paragraph 3-8 at page 208.

Short title, commencement and extent

Section 153(1) of the act provided that the act may be cited as the Supreme Court Act 1981. Section 153(2) of the act provided that the act would come into force on 1 January 1982. Section 153(3) of the act provided that the act would extend to

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

only except for as expressly specified and with specific exceptions in that subsection for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Notes

References

*Civil Procedure (The White Book), Thomson, Sweet & Maxwell United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1981 Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England and Wales English law Senior courts of England and Wales Consolidation Acts {{UK-statute-stub