The court asked what was the result of a first instance hearing of a matter where it had incorrectly concluded the matter to be a criminal cause. Was it ultra vires?
Held: Lord Lowry CJ said: ‘It is an accepted maxim that nothing is to be intended out of the jurisdiction of the High Court except that which is expressly excluded from it. At common law the Court of Queen’s Bench, and subsequently the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court, exercised the prerogative jurisdiction through a plurality of judges and there is nothing in section 16(5) which unequivocally dictates that that jurisdiction can now only be lawfully exercised by one judge, where it was formerly exercised by two or three judges, or even by the entire Bench as, for example, in R (Martin) v Mahony [1910] 2 IR 695.’
Judges:
Lord Lowry CJ
Citations:
[1988] NI 20
Statutes:
Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978 16(5), Rules of the Supreme Court (Northern Ireland) 1980
Jurisdiction:
Northern Ireland
Cited by:
Cited – Alexander, Farrelly and Others, Re Judicial Review QBNI 5-Mar-2009
Each claimant said that they had been wrongfully arrested, the arresting police officers having either failed to ask whether the arrest was necessary (Farrelly), or mistakenly concluding so.
Held: The Order now contained in regulation . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Northern Ireland
Updated: 18 May 2022; Ref: scu.412282