1 - Start ~4 mins
2 - Examine ~9 mins
Courts are stacked on purpose. Three ideas matter today.
Start level. Everyday matters usually begin in a lower court close to where people live. Heavier or more complex cases can start higher up. In Ireland you will meet the District Court, the Circuit Court and the High Court as places a case can begin.
Appeal path. An appeal is a check by a higher court when someone argues the first answer was wrong, not a free second try at the same level. The Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court sit on that path; the Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the State.
Specific job. Beyond Ireland, two international courts matter for this course, and each has a narrow job. The European Court of Human Rights hears claims under the European Convention on Human Rights after Irish remedies are finished. The International Criminal Court is built for the most serious international crimes, such as war crimes and genocide. Those courts are not a general upstairs for ordinary Irish cases.
Relevance is which court can start a case, and which court can hear it next if someone challenges the result. You will lock the full Irish order in the next activity.
3 - Build the Courts Ladder ~19 mins
Open the interactive activity. Top of the screen is the highest court. Drag each Irish court onto the court an appeal from it would go to, and read the relationship on every link. Leave the two international courts free-standing; they are not a general next step for ordinary Irish cases.
When the structure checks out, your teacher will read five short invented cases. For each one, decide in pairs which court the case would start in, or which court it would move to, and say why.
Which court hears what, and where does it go next?
4 - Make Sense of It ~5 mins
Look back at the structure and the five cases.
Where did most everyday matters start? Where did a challenge to a minister's power start? What had to be true before the European Court of Human Rights could even be in the picture?
Talk in pairs, then share: the hierarchy is the relevance. A court's job is fixed by where a case may start and where an appeal or application may go next, not by which name sounds the most important.
5 - What You Covered ~3 mins
You can now:
- place Ireland's main courts in order and say what an appeal link means
- say what the District Court, Circuit Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court are generally for
- explain the distinct jobs of the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court
- match a realistic case to the court where it would start or move next (LO 3.9)
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