The Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales is a member of the Court of Appeal appointed by the Lord Chief Justice to supervise the Presiding Judges for the various judicial circuits of England and Wales. The Senior Presiding Judge is responsible for deployment and personnel issues for all circuits and acts as a "general point of liaison" for the courts, judiciary and Government.
The post dates to the appointment in 1983 of Sir Tasker Watkins, [1] who remains the longest-serving holder of the office. The arrangement was put on a statutory footing with the enactment of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. [2] [3]
In each circuit, there are two Presiding Judges appointed by the Lord Chief Justice to preside each of the six circuits in England and Wales, with the exception of the South-Eastern circuit which is supervised by the Lord Chief Justice and two High Court judges. [4] The judge is responsible for the deployment of the judiciary and allocation of cases and for the general supervision of the judiciary in the circuit. [5]
Following the enactment of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, increased duties for the Senior Presiding Judge prompted the Lord Chief Justice to appoint a deputy. [19] On four occasions the office has fallen vacant for 21 months or more. Each time was after the incumbent became Senior Presiding Judge.
In the United Kingdom, the Judge Advocate General is a judge responsible for the Court Martial process within the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. As such the post has existed since 2006; prior to this date the Judge Advocate General's authority related to the Army and the RAF while the Judge Advocate of the Fleet was the equivalent with regard to the Royal Navy.
A recorder is a judicial officer in England and Wales and some other common law jurisdictions.
There are various levels of judiciary in England and Wales—different types of courts have different styles of judges. They also form a strict hierarchy of importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, so that judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales are given more weight than district judges sitting in county courts and magistrates' courts. On 1 April 2020 there were 3,174 judges in post in England and Wales. Some judges with United Kingdom-wide jurisdiction also sit in England and Wales, particularly Justices of the United Kingdom Supreme Court and members of the tribunals judiciary.
Sir Robin Ernest Auld, is a former Lord Justice of Appeal in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
Sir John Bernard Goldring is a British judge. He currently sits as the President of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal, and serves as the Deputy Investigatory Powers Commissioner. He formerly sat on the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
A justice of the High Court, commonly known as a High Court judge, is a judge of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, and represents the third-highest level of judge in the courts of England and Wales. High Court judges are referred to as puisne justices and wear red and black robes.
Dame Victoria Madeleine Sharp,, PC is a British barrister and judge. She has been the President of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice since 2019.
The Judges' Council is a body in England and Wales that, representing the judiciary, advises the Lord Chief Justice on judicial matters. It has its historical roots in the original Council of the Judges of the Supreme Court, created by the Judicature Act 1873 to oversee the new Supreme Court of Judicature. This body initially met regularly, reforming the procedure used by the circuit courts, and the new High Court of Justice but met less regularly as time went on, meeting only twice between 1900 and 1907, with a gap of ten years between meetings in 1940 and 1950 respectively. After relative inactivity, it was eventually wound up through the Supreme Court Act 1981, which contained no provisions for its continued existence, something Denis Dobson attributes to newer bodies which performed the duties the Council had originally been created to do.
Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom are the judges of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom other than the president and the deputy president of the court. The Supreme Court is the highest court of the United Kingdom for all civil cases, and for criminal cases from the jurisdictions of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. Judges are appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the prime minister, who receives recommendations from a selection commission.
Sir Peter Henry Gross is a retired judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and judicial commissioner of the Court of Appeal in Brunei.
Sir Peter Ribblesdale Thornton KC is a former Senior Circuit Judge and former Chief Coroner of England and Wales.
Roger John Laugharne Thomas, Baron Thomas of Cwmgiedd, FLSW is a British judge. He served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2013 to 2017.
David Lloyd Jones, Lord Lloyd-Jones, PC, FLSW is a British judge and legal scholar. He has served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom since 2017, and has also served as a member of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and as a chairman of the Law Commission prior to joining the Supreme Court.
Sir Anthony Hooper, PC is a British retired judge, former professor of law, and a member of Matrix Chambers. He joined Matrix Chambers in 2013 after his retirement from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. In 2013 he was appointed inaugural Judicial Fellow of the Judicial Institute of University College, London, where he is an Honorary Professor. He is an Honorary Fellow at Trinity hall, Cambridge. Since 2018, he has been helping to fight corruption and to reform judicial system in Ukraine.
The Vice-President of the Civil Division is a Court of Appeal Judge who assists the Master of the Rolls in leading the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The power to appoint a vice-president was created by the Senior Courts Act 1981, but was not exercised until Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers was appointed Master of the Rolls in 2000. Because Lord Phillips was in the process of completing the inquiry into the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak, he appointed Sir Martin Nourse the first vice-president so he could serve as Acting Master of the Rolls.
Dame Julia Wendy Macur, DBE, known as The Rt Hon Lady Justice Macur, is a British judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. Between April 2017 and December 2019, she was the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales.
Sir Timothy Victor Holroyde, PC, styled The Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Holroyde, is an English Court of Appeal judge, formerly a judge of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Queen's Bench Division. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in October 2017. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 2017. In 2015 he was appointed a member of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, and served as its Chairman between 2018 and 2022. In June 2022 he was appointed Vice-President of the Court of Appeal, succeeding Lord Justice Fulford.
Sir Stephen John Irwin, is a retired British judge and barrister. From September 2016 until October 2020, he was a Lord Justice of Appeal. From May 2006 to 2016, he served as a judge of the High Court of England and Wales.
Dame Kathryn Mary Thirlwall, DBE, styled The Rt Hon Lady Justice Thirlwall, is an English judge of the Court of Appeal, and from January 2020 to September 2021 was the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales. She practised as a barrister from 1982, was a High Court judge from April 2010, and was promoted to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in February 2017.
The King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts.
From 1991 to 1995, McCowan was Senior Presiding Judge of England and Wales.Alt URL
He was the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales from 1995 to 1998.