Лекция: The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

Its jurisdiction is now confined to hearing appeals from the remaining colonies, and from those former British territories which have chosen to retain it as their final appeal court. The judges of the Privy Council are predominantly the same Law Lords that normally sit in the House of Lords, with the addition, every now and again, of eminent judges from Commonwealth countries,

The Employment Appeal Tribunal was set up following thegreat increase in recent years of disputes arising from employment, especially involving unfair dismissal or discrimination. The court hears appeals from industrial tribunals. Every case is heard by a High Court judge and two lay members chosen for their knowledge and experience of industrial relations: trade union officials, for instance, and representatives of employers' organizations.

The Restrictive Practices Court which is of the level of the High Court, has various powers to stop or control restrictive or monopolistic practices in the supply of goods and services — for example, agreements between ostensibly competitive companies to charge a minimum price for their products, against the interests of the consumer.

Coroners' Courts. Coroners, who must be qualified lawyers or doctors, have a duty to hold public inquests into any violent, unnatural or suspicious death, or in the case of a person dying suddenly without any obvious cause, or in prison or in police custody. Coroners' inquests are not trials, but witnesses are called, and there is often a jury who decide on the manner of death — suicide, unlawful killing, misadventure or accident — or (where they are not sure) return an open verdict.

Tribunals. Outside the normal hierarchy of the courts, flourishes a parallel structure of administrative and judicial bodies lumped together under the genera! description of tribunals. Some of them have been in existence for a century or more, but they have proliferated especially in the last thirty years, since the creation of the welfare state. The sixty or so tribunals cover a wide range of subjects, from tax to mental health, from forestry to patents. Some of the most important and widely used are the industrial tribunals, where workers can claim compensation for unfair dismissal; the supplementary benefit appeals tribunal; rent tribunal; and the immigration appeals tribunal.

The tribunals differ in their membership and rules of procedure, but they all conduct themselves according to the principles of justice used by the courts.