{"id":149,"date":"2013-03-11T15:25:26","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T15:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning_2013-2014\/?p=149"},"modified":"2013-03-11T15:25:26","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T15:25:26","slug":"neal-15-presents-paper-at-roycal-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/2013\/03\/11\/neal-15-presents-paper-at-roycal-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Neal ’15 Presents Paper at Roycal Courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam Neal ’15<\/em> – Based on our mixed luck with presentations so far, Likai and I still weren\u2019t sure about how our presentation would turn out, even as we passed through security into the Royal Courts of Justice.\u00a0 We had done as much research as we could about the building itself, its organization and function, but we couldn\u2019t shake the nagging feeling that we would be silenced abruptly like Patrick and Michael were at the Tower of London.<\/p>\n

There are few buildings that can truly be called majestic, but the Royal Courts of Justice have more than earned the description.\u00a0 As soon as you enter the building, it opens up into a great hall, whose floor is littered with mosaic designs, with large columned walls that extend almost twenty meters up, interrupted only by elevated stain-glass windows decorated with many colorful coat-of-arms.\u00a0 Combined with its high pointed arches and sweeping flying buttresses, the RCJ is a textbook example of a Neo-Gothic style cathedral, an apt comparison given that the architect who was commissioned to build it, Sir George Edmund Street, thought he was designing one at the time.\u00a0 Buildings like the RCJ are one the best things about London: humility that comes with being in the presence of such famous and venerable institutions, ones which seem to defy the effects of time and history.<\/p>\n

The building was opened in 1882 by Queen Victoria, who believed that the different courts across the nation needed to be consolidated into one location (to an extent).\u00a0 This integration was an important step in the continuation of the merging between common law and equity in England, an important theme to which we have often returned during both class and this trip.\u00a0 The common law courts merged into the High Court in 1875, while the Chancery\/equity courts merged in 1875.<\/p>\n

After meeting our tour guide, he took us into court room 7, one of the original and oldest courtrooms in the building.\u00a0 Even though some of us had already been inside in order to listen to cases, it was still worth noting how small these courtrooms were in comparison to what we\u2019re used to seeing in the States.<\/p>\n

After discovering that we had done some research on the RCJ already, our tour guide very graciously allowed me and Likai to present some of our findings on the building, from the desk of the court clerk and stenographer no less.\u00a0 Despite being neither of those, we managed to surprise the tour guide, accidentally jumping ahead of his planned remarks on several occasions.<\/p>\n

The most distinguishing feature of the RCJ as an institution must be its distinct division of labor.\u00a0 Of the main divisions, first is Chancery, which handles business, trade, and industry disputes.\u00a0 Second is Queen\u2019s Bench handling large commercial disputes and civil wrongs, and finally Family with divorce, custody, etc.\u00a0 There is also the Administrative Court, which handles judicial review.\u00a0 You won\u2019t see any criminal cases being handled at the RCJ unless an already convicted criminal is appealing a decision.\u00a0 It was also interesting to learn that there are no jury trials at the RCJ, with however the exception of libel and slander cases.<\/p>\n

Learning and (more importantly) seeing practically every detail, from who sits where in the courtroom and different official garb to the little quirks in the building\u2019s construction really made the Royal Courts of Justice come alive as a living, working legal organism.\u00a0 Seeing barristers in action also greatly expounded upon the talks we had earlier in the week, and really placed what we learned in a modern, practice-instead-of-preach light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Neal ’15 – Based on our mixed luck with presentations so far, Likai and I still weren\u2019t sure about how our presentation would turn out, even as we passed through security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/immersionlearning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}