雖然人們習於以「英美法」一辭稱呼美國與英國的法律制度，不過在相當程度上，由於美國獨立後的相關發展，目前英國的法律制度實際上與美國的現行法律制度存在不小的差異，刑事訴訟程序亦然。為避免將英美刑事訴訟制度混為一談，並提供作為進一步認識英美刑事司法制度間差異之基礎，本文旨在介紹英國刑事司法制度之重要特徵及發展，至於具體英美法制度間之比較，並不在本文探討之列，合先敘明。因此，本文首先介紹英國刑事法律制度之架構，而由於英國之刑事訴訟制度在沿革上係以警察制度為發展之基礎，因而在介紹英國檢察制度前，先行介紹英國警察制度及PACE之發展。又鑑於英國刑事審判程序構造之特殊性，本文遂進一步說明英國各類刑事法院及審判程序之特徵，特別是英國最高法院之設置發展。又因英國已於1998 年通過人權法，雖英國法院於審判時並無義務直接依據歐洲人權法院的裁判而為裁判，但因在援引歐洲人權公約時，英國法院必須採納人權法院的觀點，因此本文也將簡述部分來自歐洲人權公約的法制衝擊。

People are used to name the British and American legal systems the
Anglo-American system, but to some extent the American legal system,
including the criminal justice system, is quite different from its British
counterpart after the American Independence. To avoid confusion of these
two systems, this study focuses on main characteristics and important
developments of the British criminal justice system so that a further comparative study between the British and American criminal justice systems might be possible. First of all, this study introduces the legal framework. Since the British criminal justice system bases upon its police system, before introduction of the British prosecutorial system, this study explores the British police system and developments of PACE. This study also introduces characteristics of the criminal court system and trial process, especially for the establishment and development of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. While England passed the European Human Rights in 1988, the British courts have to refer to opinions of the European Court of Human Rights to interpret the European Convention on Human Rights. As a result, this study also introduces impacts on the British criminal justice system from the European Convention on Human Rights.