Dispute Resolution
Adversarial & inquisitorial approaches
- Adversarial approach
o Where judges in courts act as impartial referees
o The parties attempting to prove & disprove facts & to dispute various points
of applicable law
- Inquisitorial approach
o Where judges seek out facts & issues of law by questioning parties &
witnesses
Adversarial system
- The cornerstone of English legal procedure
- Court is seen as an arena where a contest is waged & 1 party emerges as the winner
- Parties dictate form, content & pace of proceedings
- Proceedings dominated by advocates
- Based on assumption of reasonably equally matched representation
Inquisitorial system
- Seen in continental civil law systems
- Court calls witnesses
- Presiding judge examines witnesses
- Effectively no cross contamination
- Oral testimony regarded as less significant
Tribunals
- Court substitutes
o No choice about taking a dispute to a tribunal if that’s the forum by law for
resolution of that problem
- Adjudicative
o Reach judicial decisions by finding the facts & applying the law
- Deal with matters that the state has decided to take outside the court system
Development of tribunals
- New legal rights led to new decisions on those rights
- Disenchantment with ability of courts to address these decisions
- New rights for people with few resources required low-cost forum for dispute
resolution
- Often complex legislation
Tribunals fit into the English legal system
- Court substitutes
o Policy decision to take a particular sphere of adjudication away from courts
- Parties are mostly citizen v state
o Except employment tribunals
- Volume of cases heard by tribunals about 6 times that of cases in high court &
county court
Appeals from tribunals
- Can appeal sometimes to another level of tribunal
- Can appeal sometimes to high court on points of law
- Decisions of tribunals are always subject to judicial review by high court
Procedure
- Meant to be less legalistic than courts
Adversarial & inquisitorial approaches
- Adversarial approach
o Where judges in courts act as impartial referees
o The parties attempting to prove & disprove facts & to dispute various points
of applicable law
- Inquisitorial approach
o Where judges seek out facts & issues of law by questioning parties &
witnesses
Adversarial system
- The cornerstone of English legal procedure
- Court is seen as an arena where a contest is waged & 1 party emerges as the winner
- Parties dictate form, content & pace of proceedings
- Proceedings dominated by advocates
- Based on assumption of reasonably equally matched representation
Inquisitorial system
- Seen in continental civil law systems
- Court calls witnesses
- Presiding judge examines witnesses
- Effectively no cross contamination
- Oral testimony regarded as less significant
Tribunals
- Court substitutes
o No choice about taking a dispute to a tribunal if that’s the forum by law for
resolution of that problem
- Adjudicative
o Reach judicial decisions by finding the facts & applying the law
- Deal with matters that the state has decided to take outside the court system
Development of tribunals
- New legal rights led to new decisions on those rights
- Disenchantment with ability of courts to address these decisions
- New rights for people with few resources required low-cost forum for dispute
resolution
- Often complex legislation
Tribunals fit into the English legal system
- Court substitutes
o Policy decision to take a particular sphere of adjudication away from courts
- Parties are mostly citizen v state
o Except employment tribunals
- Volume of cases heard by tribunals about 6 times that of cases in high court &
county court
Appeals from tribunals
- Can appeal sometimes to another level of tribunal
- Can appeal sometimes to high court on points of law
- Decisions of tribunals are always subject to judicial review by high court
Procedure
- Meant to be less legalistic than courts
