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, [n 1] 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. [3]
Lord Phillips opted to appoint a successor on Sir Martin Nourse's retirement the following year to deputise when he was abroad. Sir Simon Brown took up the office on the condition that he have no duties unless Lord Phillips was in fact out of the country. The next holder, Sir Henry Brooke expanded his duties to include liaising with the Court of Appeal office, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Bar Pro Bono Unit and the Personal Support Unit; editing the Annual Review; taking a lead on the court's information technology efforts; leading the team dealing with asylum work; and overseeing the editing of the Asylum Bench Book and the Court of Appeal Bench Book. [3] Since then, successive Lords and Lady Justices have filled the position.
The Court of Appeal is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Court of Appeal was created in 1875, and today comprises 39 Lord Justices of Appeal and Lady Justices of Appeal.
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales and the President of the Courts of England and Wales.
Mary Howarth Arden, Lady Mance,, known professionally as Lady Arden of Heswall, is a former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Before that, she was a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal is a tribunal in England and Wales and Scotland, and is a superior court of record. Its primary role is to hear appeals from Employment Tribunals in England, Scotland and Wales. It also hears appeals from decisions of the Certification Officer and the Central Arbitration Committee and has original jurisdiction over certain industrial relations issues.
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 generally 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.
The President of the Queen's Bench Division is the head of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. The current president is Dame Victoria Sharp.
Dame Elizabeth Gloster, DBE, PC is a former judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Vice-President of the Civil Division. She was the first female judge of the Commercial Court.
Sir Colin Percy Farquharson Rimer is a former judge of the English Court of Appeal; he retired in 2014.
Michael Townley Featherstone Briggs, Lord Briggs of Westbourne, is a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He served earlier as a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. By Royal Warrant, he bears the courtesy title of Lord Briggs of Westbourne.
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.
John Anthony Dyson, Lord Dyson, is a former British judge and barrister. He was Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice, the second most senior judge in England and Wales, from 2012 to 2016, and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2012. He was the first justice to be appointed who was not a peer.
Judge Eugene Cotran was a circuit judge in England and one of the main jurists in charge of the drafting of a Basic Law of Palestine.
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. The Supreme Court is the highest in the whole of the United Kingdom for civil matters, and for criminal matters from the United Kingdom jurisdictions of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. Judges are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister, who receives recommendations from a selection commission. The number of judges is set by s.23(2) Constitutional Reform Act 2005, which established the Court, but may be increased by the Queen through an Order in Council under s.23(3). There are currently 12 positions: one President, one Deputy President, and 10 Justices. Judges of the Court who are not already peers are granted the style Lord or Lady followed by a surname, territorial designation or a combination of both, for life.
Sir Brian Henry Leveson is a retired English judge who served as the President of the Queen's Bench Division and Head of Criminal Justice.
Sir Martin James Moore-Bick is a retired judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
Sir Martin Charles Nourse was a Lord Justice of Appeal of England and Wales, who served as Vice-President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales from 2003 until his retirement from the bench in 2006.
Sir Nicholas Edward Underhill is a British judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
Sir Geoffrey Charles Vos is a British judge. Since January 2021, he has held the position of Master of the Rolls, the head of civil justice in the court system of England and Wales.
Sir Jonathan Frederic Parker is a retired British Lord Justice of Appeal.