Aims. To evaluate the statutory jurisdiction of the Sheriff Court in Scottish local administration. This involves consideration of significant powers held in a wide range of areas: for example, compulsory hospitalisation of the mentally ill, appeals over parental choice of school, assumption of parental rights by local authorities, and licensing appeals. Objectives. 1. To establish theoretical general principles based on the constitutional ideal of the rule of law, which encourage definition of the judicial role, and the advantages and disadvantages of court-based adjudication as a decision-taking process in the administrative law arena. These can be used as standards in the evaluation of the sheriff's multifarious statutory duties in local administration. 2. To set out the historical development of the sheriff's jurisdiction in local administration, in order to illustrate: (i) the socio-legal factors which have influenced the evolution of the sheriff's role; (ii) the confusions which have arisen in case law; and (iii) the amorphous nature of the jurisdiction. 3. To resolve the confusion surrounding the sheriff's jurisdiction in local administration by: (i) giving close attention to current case law; (ii) categorising the sheriff's current powers on the basis of the theory and general principles of the rule of law, and the historical material; and (iii) providing empirical material which gives an idea of how often individual powers are exercised in practice. 4. To evaluate the sheriff's current powers according to the standards set out under the theory and general principles of the rule of law by: (i) library based research into the different categories of power; and (ii) detailed empirical research into how representative powers operate in practice. The advantages and disadvantages of shrieval adjudication are also considered in more general terms. Conclusions. Some categories of the sheriff's powers are identified as being either anomalous in terms of the theory and general principles of the rule of law, or obsolete: these are contrasted with categories which are neither. There is little justification for the continuation of the former, although the latter could be developed further. It is stressed that case law is confused and anachronistic; and that there are a number of serious deficiencies in sheriff court practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:653952 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Little, Gavin Forbes MacLeod |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/19934 |
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