The basic principle is that any Union member can request the Union Court to consider some matter that may fall within its jurisdiction. You do not need permission to make a request. However, the Court cannot deal with a matter of its own volition. It can only hear a case if someone requests it to.
The Court’s standing orders set out the rules for accepting requests, with some restrictions are there to ensure the request has some substance to it. Because of the importance attached to the principle that anyone can request the Court to hear a case, changes to these rules have also to be approved by the Trustee Board.
The formal language for a matter being heard by the Court is a “case”. An individual public meeting on a case is known as a “hearing”. A complex case may have several hearings.
If thinking of requesting a case you are likely to have hit a “wall” with the democratic committees or officers. If you think some rule or principle of propriety has been breached, or a decision seems so unreasonable it could not possibly be constitutional, then you should attempt to get the committee or officer to rectify the situation. Of course, there may be circumstances where this is not possible or realistic. On other occasions, such as election appeals, one appeals directly to the Court in any event and there may be little point in trying to persuade a returning officer to change his mind.
Alternatively, you may think that a senior officer's or committee's interpretation of some rule is unreasonable or unfair - the Court can then give a definitive ruling on the point.
If you make a request, the Court will need to know:
* What it is that has gone wrong, or may go wrong
* What rule if any has been broken
* What you want the Court to do about it
These precepts may be simple but many requests fail to include them which can result in delays.
Requests to the Court do have to be approved, except in limited circumstances such as an appeal under the Disciplinary Policy. The Court Chair or Deputy Chair (who are tasked at first instance with filtering requests) may ask for more information. The current post-holders and on the “Members' biographies” page, but can be e-mailed on union.court@imperial.ac.uk.
If the request is for a review of a decision, then it must be either relevant to the requestor, important to the Union or a part of it and in either case not a purely hypothetical or academic issue. The Court will not meet to consider something on an off-chance or speculation.
In addition, the request must not be illogical, vexatious, frivolous or anonymous. It has to concern something within the Court’s jurisdiction. If it is an appeal and is patently wholly unmeritorious even on the basis of the requestor’s claim, it can also be disregarded.
The Court Chair and Deputy Court Chair will also be able to give you informal advice about the process and are happy to field queries.
Students who have opted out of membership may complain to the Court that they have been unfairly disadvantaged with regard to the provision of services or otherwise by reason of having opted out.
Requests by Court members themselves are heavily restricted to ensure it does not become an inward-looking body.
Please see the separate pages covering these specialist areas: Election appeals, Mediation Board and Disciplinary matters.