Royal Courts of Justice

By Archie Linden, 4Blue

Earlier this week Year 4 blue went to the Royal Courts Of Justice.  The Royal Courts Of Justice is a place where trials take place and some very major trials have been there: in 2010 Apple (the company) said that Samsung had copied one of their designs and attempted to sue them, but in the end, after a lot of deliberation, the Jury said that Samsung had not copied the Apple design; in another trial in 1991 a decision had to be made whether Jaffa Cakes were cakes or biscuits for tax, and the decision was they were cakes, so they didn't have value added tax!

In the Royal Courts Of Justice there are endless corridors stretching on and on and on.  You wouldn't want to be stuck there at night!  We went down a few of these corridors and into a court room.  It was a very plain room with a lot of books of law on the wooden shelves that looked like a formal library.

In this very room we did a play of the 10 year old boy John Henry Weismann's trial set in the Victorian period.  The defendant, John Henry Weismann, was accused of burglary in Mr Grey's house. There were many roles in the play, here they are: the judge, who makes sure everything is fair and if the defendant is guilty he will decide the sentence; the prosecution, who will try to persuade the Jury that the defendant is guilty; the defence, who will try to persuade the Jury that the defendant is not guilty; the clerk, who will make sure everything is on time and on track; the usher, who administers oaths to witnesses; the prosecution and defence witnesses, who will respond to questions by the prosecution and defence; the barristers and solicitors, of which there is one each to help the prosecution and defence; and finally the Jury, who make the important decision of whether the defendant is guilty or not!

My part was the prosecution therefore I had to wear a wig, which was all curly and blond and so quite embarrassing, but otherwise the part was great. The solicitors and barristers on the prosecution team did a great job helping me out with both the questions I had to make up and speak out loud. As a result the jury picked my side, we won the trial, John was found guilty of burglary in Mr Grey's house and he was sentenced to prison for a year.

I really hope to go to the Royal Courts of Justice again as this was a great experience for me. It has really pushed my interest in Crime and Punishment.