The rule of law requires a fair access to justice for England and Wales as well as any other sovereign country with a governing constitution. The route towards delivering equitable access to justice to all citizens requires enrolment of all justice department stakeholders as well as other interested parties. For instance, each of the arms of the government has their own responsibilities that need execution to the best of their ability in order to ensure equal justice to all. In this case, each arm of the government is it the legislature, executive, or judiciary should not intimidate or influence another. In this regard, the judiciary that is the one under question should execute its duties without any form of discrimination or give in to any form of external influence in carrying out its decisions.
In addition, access to justice is a directive from the rule of law that states various principles are guiding a country towards achieving a secure and equal access to justice for both England and Wales. First, it calls for all legislation to be accessible and open for public scrutiny. In this case, the public can access the laws at any time to find anything of their interest at their convenience. On the other hand, it requires all courts to be accessible to citizens at any time and all justice personnel always to respect human rights. This largely helps in ensuring free access to justice as well as equal treatment of all England and Wales citizens at any period they visit these institutions. For instance, the European convention on human rights which calls for the right to fair trial as well as the right to an adequate remedy respectively.
England and Wales justices systems are structured in a way that they ensure effective and efficient access and equal justice ton all its citizens. As a result, this means that both the defendants and the complainants will get a fair treatment when they seek the justice to solve their misunderstanding. The Aarhus convention ensures adequate access to environmental justice for all citizens in both countries. In this situation, this law gives members of the public as well as environmental institutions ability to refuse any decisions made by public authorities, which may affect their rights as citizens of a sovereign country. Article 9(4) of the Constitution states that the procedures of the fair justice system in the country must provide an injunctive relief. Additionally, they should be fair, equitable, timely, and cheap. Furthermore, the Aarhus Convention provides legal aid under the community legal service to help in accessing justice in many environmental cases.
Furthermore, the justice system also provides statutory requirements where various categories of people facing the criminal cases or seeking justice will access it more conveniently. For instance, statutory requirements relating to conditions for detentions in police cells. Section 8 of the PACE code C of the constitution in both countries requires all police officers arresting g any suspect to ensure key welfare condition of their subjects. All detainees, for example, should have access to information regarding cells, food, clothes, and other social amenities available in the cell. If they fall sick while still in the cells, the police officers should provide them with the basic first aid assistance before any transfers to hospitals is done. Noteworthy is that the law requires these officers to protect as well as supporting detainees' dignity at all times in the cells.
Worth mentioning is that English and welsh constitutions require court staff, magistrates, members of the judiciary, as well as defence and prosecution lawyers to have a continuous and through awareness training on ways to deal with an individual with disabilities who are either facing trial or seeking justice of their own. Additionally, this training helps them to understand people of various dimensions of disabilities so that they can serve them as all other people since the law is applicable equally to all. Justice personnel will be able to handle people suffering from learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorders, as well as implications these impairments can have on the justice system as a whole. In particular, the personnel will devise methods to enhance justice proceedings concerning these groups of people without any difficulty. In Wales, awareness training includes Mencamp, Learning Disability Wales, and Keyring.
For offenders placed on community or suspended the sentence, a member of probation staff helps the accused execute his roles as stipulated by the magistrate. They will maintain a continuous contact over the period in which the accused is required to perform community service as a way of serving his or her sentence. The officer will provide instructions and support both verbally and in writing to help the accused during their time in community behaviour placement. As a matter of fact, this is provided under the offender behaviour program as stipulated in the constitution. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in the accused returning to court with high possibilities of facing a prison sentence. Therefore, the probation officers help in ensuring that most people get justice easily by following the orders.
Welsh and English justice systems are of the same competence to practice. Therefore, an English court cannot challenge a justice decision made by a Welsh court if the detainee decides to appeal it in a different system of justice. In this context, if an English citizen were taken to a welsh court then he would be subject to the same charges just as they would have on their court. As a result, this would ensure fair treatment of detainees in both countries and hence easy access to justice since people do not have to travel to their countries of origin looking for justice but they can just access service from their area of residence.
Furthermore, the constitution requires the judicial personnel to establish an adequate detainee's risk, need, as well as suitability before doing any allocation. As a result, this helps in determining the accused weaknesses and strengths to for them to put their strength in performing duties that benefit them. In particular, the allocation of detainees to various working departments based on their preference, skills will help in rehabilitating prisoners by providing an opportunity to build the country during their time in prisons, and by the time, they go back to the society they would be of importance than before.
Children and other juveniles should receive special care when they face charges or when they seek justice due to oppression. Human rights review in 2012 provided guidelines adopted in both welsh and English justices systems where children received special ways on which they can access justice in the country.
Currently, the civil justice system of England and Wales is probably the most efficient and adequate when it comes to the ease of access to justice. For instance, the alternative dispute resolution ADR introduced in the previous reforms in the judicial system of England and Wales has made it possible for the ordinary people to access justice in an easier way. The ADR has enabled us to handle many cases outside the court resulting in the resolution of disputes within the shortest time possible and with a very high client satisfaction. One of the commonly used forms of alternative dispute resolution is such phenomenon as outside community tribunals which are faster in the handling of cases and as well give lasting solutions to legal problems. Nevertheless, most civil conflicts in England and Wales do not end up in court. Instead, they are addressed through mediation and even those cases that end up in court many times do not reach a stage of the full trial. Additionally, they are resolved through other conflict-resolving procedures because the general aim of courts is to decide cases in the simplest way possible.
In addition, the legal justice system of England and Wales has also been adequate in the access of justice in that it has brought about equal access to justice to both the weakest and powerless and the strong and powerful. In particular, this is made possible by the legal aid which was introduced back then during the reform of the justice system. The whole concept emanates from the idea that the litigant should be able to protect his or her rights regardless of whether he is weak or strong. The legal aid especially the criminal justice legal dictates that there should be a legal representation to promote access to justice without any delay.
Another main reason as to why the current civil justice system of England and Wales assumes adequacy in the access of justice is that it is open to current changes both in technology and socially. The judicial systems of both England and Wales have adapted to the new ways of technological advancement, and both of them have conformed to the manner in which the society is changing socially. For instance in England where the majority of citizens are middle-income earners the judicial system have been reformed to fulfil the specific needs of the people. For example in the Jackson report on the cost of civil litigation in England and Wales the idea of abolishing cost shifting and this therefore greatly impacted on the commercial litigation. Lord Justice Sir Rupert Jackson brought forth some reforms in the justice system and consequently brought many positive changes in the civil justice system. On the other hand, there was a case with an introduction of contingency fee arrangement based on the provision of certain independent advice provided by the legal experts. The advice will go a long way in ensuring that justice system handles the cases of justice accessibility in more efficient manner.
In England, the Civil Justice System agencies work together, to execute justice for all the citizens. Three governmental bodies that include, The Home Office, The Attorney General’s Office, and the Department for Constitutional Affairs, oversee the work of the agencies. The main aim of the agencies mentioned above is to prevent and detect more crime and to improve the efficiency of the civil justice system.
Additionally, the form of cooperation existing amongst the agencies makes it possible for the victims and witnesses of various cases to obtain adequate support and protection and hence preventing interference of the process. The search for justice and the final solution becomes easy and takes the shortest time possible. The cooperation also leads to a reduction in the rate of crime since there would be an appropriate procedure that ensures that interference of the search for evidence does not exist at all, and the process of investigation follows due process unaltered. Delivery of justice will be on a regional basis as according to the Local Criminal Justice System agencies of England. The system cannot work without witnesses since they can give very vital information to the police, and that will enable them to carry out investigations on various matters and execute justice. In addition, victims contribute in the process because they give adequate information on how the crime affects them and the kind of support they need from the criminal investigation agency.
In 1994, there was the simplification of the complexities that existed in the civil justice system of England and Wales, through legitimate interests and that reduced the cost, as well as making it more accessible for both private and business litigants. Moreover, the litigants from both the commercial and private sectors find it appropriate and affordable for them to present their petitions without incurring further expenses. The process will also take a shorter time, and both parties involved are satisfied at the conclusion of the whole process.
In terms of dispute resolution, the government of England availed a range of options for dispute resolution with effect from 1998, as opposed to the system that was in use in the 1990s, whereby mediation regarding civil disputes lagged behind enthusiasm and activism. Legal aid expenditure continued to increase, and the ministers developed an interest for the promises of mediation. The current system of dispute resolution offers a myriad of mediation procedures through its wide range of the settlement of disputes options and hence bringing a sense of satisfaction and fairness among the citizens and the civil justice enforcement agencies as well as the governmental bodies that see the work of the agencies.
In conclusion, the civil justice system of England and Wales is very adequate on delivering access to justice, most specifically regarding observing fairness in the sense that both the weak and powerless and the strong and powerful acquire equal rights and get served without any discrimination. The reduction of the cost also shows that the system observes fairness and lack of funds cannot prevent anyone from seeking justice in the courts of law. The current system of justice on the hand shows a high degree of adequacy through the simplification of the complexities that befell the previous system of civil justice. The ease of accessing justice is evident from the manner in which the legal process occurs within the shortest time possible. Consequently, this, therefore, ensures that all individuals access equity without any delay in the provision of justice. Moreover, the system provides lots of transparency in handling cases hence an improvement in the honesty in the execution of justice. From the above observations, it is clear that both England and Wales are associated with the type of civil justice system that promotes adequacy in the execution of justice.
Reference List
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