Question: What is the highest court for criminal and civil cases in England and Wales?
About the article "England", section "Law".

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Both English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law are based on common-law principles.
The essence of common-law is that law is made by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent ("stare decisis") to the facts before them.
The Courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases).
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the hierarchy. 
The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system, as Article 19 of the 1706 Treaty of Union provided for the continuation of Scotland's separate legal system.
Today the UK has three distinct systems of law: English law, Northern Ireland law and Scots law.
A new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom came into being in October 2009 to replace the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, including the same members as the Supreme Court, is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies.
Both English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law are based on common-law principles.
The essence of common law is that, subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in courts, applying statute, precedent and common sense to the facts before them to give explanatory judgements of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases ("stare decisis").
The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases).
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, often having a persuasive effect in other jurisdictions.
Scots law is a hybrid system based on both common-law and civil-law principles.
The chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom serves as the highest court of appeal for civil cases under Scots law.
Sheriff courts deal with most civil and criminal cases including conducting criminal trials with a jury, known as sheriff solemn court, or with a sheriff and no jury, known as sheriff summary Court.
The Scots legal system is unique in having three possible verdicts for a criminal trial: "guilty", "not guilty" and ""not proven"".
Both "not guilty" and "not proven" result in an acquittal.
Crime in England and Wales increased in the period between 1981 and 1995, though since that peak there has been an overall fall of 48% in crime from 1995 to 2007/08, according to crime statistics.
The prison population of England and Wales has almost doubled over the same period, to over 80,000, giving England and Wales the highest rate of incarceration in Western Europe at 147 per 100,000.
Her Majesty's Prison Service, which reports to the Ministry of Justice, manages most of the prisons within England and Wales.
Crime in Scotland fell to its lowest recorded level for 32 years in 2009/10, falling by ten per cent.
At the same time Scotland's prison population, at over 8,000, is at record levels and well above design capacity.
The Scottish Prison Service, which reports to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, manages Scotland's prisons.
In 2006 a report by the Surveillance Studies Network found that the UK had the highest level of mass surveillance among industrialised western nations. 
"English law" is a term of art.
It refers to the legal system administered by the courts in England and Wales, which rule on both civil and criminal matters.
English law is renowned as being the mother of the common law and is based on those principles.
English law can be described as having its own legal doctrine, distinct from civil law legal systems since 1189.
There has been no major codification of the law, and subject to statute, the law is developed by judges in court, applying statute, precedent and common sense to the facts before them, to give explanatory judgements of the relevant legal principles, which are reported and binding in future similar cases ("stare decisis").
In the early centuries, the justices and judges were responsible for adapting the Writ system to meet everyday needs, applying a mixture of precedent and common sense to build up a body of internally consistent law, e.g., the Law Merchant began in the Pie-Powder Courts, see Court of Piepowder (a corruption of the Law French "pieds-poudrés" or "dusty feet", meaning ad hoc marketplace courts).
As Parliament developed in strength, subject to the doctrine of separation of powers, legislation gradually overtook judicial law-making, so that today judges are only able to innovate in certain very narrowly-defined areas.
The year 1189 was defined in 1276 as being the boundary of time immemorial.
The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases).
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land for both criminal and civil appeal cases in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and any decision it makes is binding on every other court in the same jurisdiction, and often has persuasive effect in its other jurisdictions.
On appeal, a court may overrule the decisions of its inferior courts, such as county courts (civil) and magistrates' courts (criminal).
The High Court may also quash on judicial review both administrative decisions of the Government and delegated legislation.
The ultimate body of appeal for all criminal and civil cases in England and Wales (and Northern Ireland, and for all civil cases in Scots law) is the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which took over this function from the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (usually just referred to as "The House of Lords") in October 2009.
After the Acts of Union, in 1707 English law became one of two legal systems in different parts of the same, united, kingdom and has been influenced by Scots law, most notably in the development and integration of the law merchant by Lord Mansfield and in time the development of the law of negligence.
Scottish influence may have influenced the abolition of the forms of action in the nineteenth century and extensive procedural reforms in the twentieth. 
The United Kingdom has three legal systems.
English law, which applies in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland law, which applies in Northern Ireland, are based on common-law principles.
Scots law, which applies in Scotland, is a pluralistic system based on civil-law principles, with common law elements dating back to the High Middle Ages.
While England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland diverge in the more detailed rules of common law and equity, and while there are certain fields of legislative competence devolved in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and London, there are substantive fields of law which apply across the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom does not have a single legal system since it was created by the political union of previously independent countries.
Article 19 of the Treaty of Union, put into effect by the Acts of Union in 1707, created the Kingdom of Great Britain but guaranteed the continued existence of Scotland's separate legal system.
The Acts of Union of 1800, which combined Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, contained no equivalent provisions but preserved the principle of separate courts to be held in Ireland, of which the part called Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the highest court in the land for all criminal and civil cases in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and for all civil cases in Scots law.
The Supreme Court came into being in October 2009, replacing the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords.
In England and Wales, the court system is headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice (for civil cases) and the Crown Court (for criminal cases).
The Courts of Northern Ireland follow the same pattern.
In Scotland the chief courts are the Court of Session, for civil cases, and the High Court of Justiciary, for criminal cases.
Sheriff courts have no equivalent outside Scotland, as they deal with both criminal and civil caseloads.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the highest court of appeal for several independent Commonwealth countries, the British overseas territories, and the British Crown dependencies.
There are also immigration courts with UK-wide jurisdiction — the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and Special Immigration Appeals Commission.
The Employment tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal have jurisdiction throughout Great Britain, but not Northern Ireland. 
The English law legal system, developed over the centuries, is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States (except Louisiana).
Despite now being part of the United Kingdom, the legal system of the Courts of England and Wales continued, under the Treaty of Union, as a separate legal system from the one used in Scotland.
The general essence of English law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent—"stare decisis"—to the facts before them.
The court system is headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice for civil cases, and the Crown Court for criminal cases.
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the highest court for criminal and civil cases in England and Wales.
It was created in 2009 after constitutional changes, taking over the judicial functions of the House of Lords.
A decision of the Supreme Court is binding on every other court in the hierarchy, which must follow its directions.
Crime increased between 1981 and 1995, but fell by 42% in the period 1995–2006.
The prison population doubled over the same period, giving it the highest incarceration rate in Western Europe at 147 per 100,000.
Her Majesty's Prison Service, reporting to the Ministry of Justice, manages most prisons, housing over 85,000 convicts.