SQE1 · Subject page 5 · 5 min read

SQE1 FLK1 subject notes: the courts and the judiciary, the court hierarchy and appeals, rights of audience, the doctrine of precedent, the structure of an Act of Parliament, and the rules, presumptions and aids of statutory interpretation.

What this subject covers

The SRA specification covers the courts (the judiciary, the court hierarchy, the appeal system and jurisdiction, and rights of audience); the development of case law through the doctrine of precedent; primary legislation and the structure of an Act; and statutory interpretation (the literal, golden and mischief rules, the purposive approach, presumptions, and aids to interpretation). In the specification this subject sits with Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law, and together they make up one of the six blueprint areas of FLK1.

Key principles

The courts

• Civil: the County Court hears most civil claims; the High Court has three divisions (King's Bench, Chancery and Family) and the Business and Property Courts for specialist work.
• Criminal: all criminal cases start in the magistrates' court; indictable cases and some either-way cases go to the Crown Court for trial by judge and jury.
• Appeals: civil appeals within the County Court and to the High Court, then to the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) and the Supreme Court; criminal appeals from the magistrates by rehearing to the Crown Court, or on a point of law by case stated to a Divisional Court of the King's Bench Division (Magistrates' Courts Act 1980, s 111); appeals from the Crown Court to the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division); the Supreme Court hears appeals on points of law of general public importance.
• Judiciary: magistrates (lay justices and district judges (magistrates' courts)), district judges, recorders and circuit judges, High Court judges, Lords and Lady Justices of Appeal, and Justices of the Supreme Court.
• Rights of audience: solicitors have rights in the magistrates' courts, the County Court and tribunals on admission; rights to conduct trials in the Crown Court and the High Court require a higher courts advocacy qualification. Exercising a right of audience is a reserved legal activity (Legal Services Act 2007).

The doctrine of precedent

• Ratio decidendi: the legal principle necessary to the decision on the material facts; binding on lower courts. Obiter dicta: other statements, persuasive only.
• Hierarchy: the Supreme Court binds all lower courts. It may depart from its own previous decisions when it appears right to do so (Practice Statement 1966, adopted by the Supreme Court). The Court of Appeal (Civil Division) binds itself, subject to the exceptions in Young v Bristol Aeroplane: conflicting decisions of its own, a decision inconsistent with a later Supreme Court or House of Lords decision, and decisions made per incuriam. The Criminal Division takes a more flexible approach where liberty is at stake. Divisional Courts and the High Court bind lower courts; a High Court judge is not strictly bound by another, though will usually follow. The County Court and magistrates' courts create no binding precedent.
• Techniques: distinguishing (material facts differ); overruling (a higher court, in a later case, holds an earlier decision wrong); reversing (a higher court allows an appeal in the same case); disapproving (doubting a rule without overruling it).
• Decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are persuasive.

Primary legislation

• Structure of an Act: short and long titles, sections (with subsections and paragraphs), Schedules, and usually an interpretation section and a commencement section. An Act with no commencement provision comes into force at the beginning of the day of Royal Assent (Interpretation Act 1978, s 4); many Acts instead provide for commencement after two months or by ministerial regulations.
• Secondary legislation (statutory instruments) is made under powers in a parent Act and can be challenged in the courts if outside those powers.

Statutory interpretation

• Literal rule: words are given their ordinary and natural meaning, even if the result seems unfortunate (Whiteley v Chappell; Fisher v Bell).
• Golden rule: the ordinary meaning may be modified to avoid an absurd or repugnant result (Adler v George; Re Sigsworth).
• Mischief rule: the court considers the law before the Act, the defect Parliament meant to remedy, and the remedy chosen (Heydon's Case; Smith v Hughes; Royal College of Nursing v DHSS).
• Purposive approach: the modern approach, reading the words in context to give effect to Parliament's purpose.
• Rules of language: ejusdem generis (general words after a list are limited to the same kind: Powell v Kempton Park Racecourse); noscitur a sociis (a word takes meaning from its context); expressio unius est exclusio alterius (express mention of one thing excludes others).
• Presumptions: mens rea is required for criminal offences unless clearly excluded (Sweet v Parsley); legislation does not have retrospective effect; Parliament does not intend to change the common law, oust the jurisdiction of the courts or bind the Crown, unless it says so clearly.
• Aids: internal aids such as the long title, headings and Schedules; external aids such as dictionaries, Law Commission reports, Explanatory Notes and, within the limits of Pepper v Hart (ambiguity, obscurity or absurdity; clear statements by the minister or promoter of the Bill), Hansard. Under s 3 Human Rights Act 1998, legislation must be read compatibly with Convention rights so far as possible.

Worked example

An Act makes it an offence to park "any car, van, lorry or other vehicle" on a village green. A defendant rides a horse-drawn cart onto the green, and another lands a light aircraft there.

1. A literal reading of "vehicle" might include both.
2. Applying ejusdem generis, "other vehicle" is limited to the class of the listed words, motor road vehicles. A horse-drawn cart is arguably within the genus; a light aircraft probably is not.
3. A purposive approach asks what Parliament was trying to prevent, such as damage to the green or obstruction, which may favour a wider reading.
4. If the words are ambiguous, the court may look at the Explanatory Notes and, if Pepper v Hart is satisfied, at the minister's statements in Hansard.
5. In a magistrates' court the defendant could challenge the magistrates' reading on a point of law by case stated to the High Court.

Scope follows the SRA's SQE1 Functioning Legal Knowledge Assessment Specification (FLK1, Legal System of England and Wales). The notes are our own summary, not SRA material. Law of England and Wales as at 1 September 2026 (the SRA assesses the law as it stands four calendar months before the first assessment in a window).