Britain: An official handbook > 1959

BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
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only if the court, in its discretion, so orders on the application of one or both
parties to the dispute. Where there is no jury, the trial is by judge alone. In the trial
of a civil action, the jury is responsible for deciding questions of fact (as in the trial
of criminal cases) and also the amount of damages to be awarded to the injured party.
The procedure in civil cases in Scottish courts again differs in some respects.
At certain inquests at coroners’ courts in England and Wales a jury is required
to be present to return a verdict on how, when and where a deceased person died.
The jury in this instance consists of not fewer than seven and not more than eleven
jurors. A jury is also required at an inquest held by a coroner to decide whether
objects of gold or silver found in the ground are ‘ treasure trove’.
Law of Evidence
Evidence in the legal sense is all the legal means, exclusive of mere argument,
which tend to prove or disprove any matter of fact, the truth of which is submitted
to judicial investigation. The law relating to it is, in general, the same in criminal
and in civil trials; but, because of the peculiar nature of a criminal trial—the
gravity of the issue, the extent to which the public interest is involved and the
penalty to which the prisoner may be subjected—some of the rules, as they relate
to the proof of the case against the prisoner, are applied with greater rigour and
severity in the course of criminal than in the course of civil proceedings. Thus,
hearsay evidence (oral or written statements made by persons not called as wit¬
nesses) is not as a rule admitted; and although the uncorroborated evidence of one
witness is, as a matter of English law, sufficient, a conviction solely on the evidence
of an accomplice (or accomplices) is, in practice, never allowed, unless the judge
has warned the jury of the dangers of convicting without corroboration. In Scotland,
apart from a few statutory exceptions, no person may be convicted unless there is
evidence of at least two witnesses, or corroboration of one witness by facts and
circumstances which clearly implicate the accused person in the crime.
Evidence of admissions of guilt by an accused person before trial are accepted
in a criminal trial only subject to certain strict conditions designed to ensure that
the prisoner has fully understood that his confession may be used in evidence, and
that it is a voluntary confession, not obtained from the prisoner either by fear of
prejudice or hope of advantage. The previous history of the prisoner may only be
used against him if he has either expressly set up his own virtuous character as
an argument for his innocence, or attacked a witness or the prosecutor, or given
evidence against a co-defendant, in which case, should he choose to give evidence
himself, he may be asked questions about his own previous convictions, provided
that they are relevant and not too remote in time.
THE COURTS
The courts that apply the law in the United King'dom are broadly speaking
divided into civil and criminal courts, although no hard and fast line can be drawn,
since the distinction is a comparatively modern one. Quite a number of civil cases
are, in fact, heard in criminal courts; while occasionally a criminal case may be
heard in what is primarily a civil court.
Civil Courts in England and Wales
The more important of the civil courts in England and Wales are:
County Courts
County courts are so arranged that there is no part of the country more than a
reasonable distance from one of them. These courts may be regarded as popular
tribunals’; nearly three-quarters of a million cases are entered in them every year,