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CHAPTER 11 THE COURTS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY SUMMARY PAGE L~al C()urts of RequeJts 207 The ReformedCounty Courts- 208 The Modem County Courts - 208 Thd Slate ofthe Superiw Co"rts - 209 The Reform ofChancery 209 The COflrtf ofCommon Low - 210 The Relali()ns of Law andEquity 210 The judicature Acts - 211 The Appellale jurisdiction Act 212 Criminaljurisdiction - 213 Court ofCriminal Appeal 213 The Profwion and Reform - 213 The nineteenth century is occupied almost continuously with changes in the judicial system, many of them individually of slight extent, and in the earlier half uncertain of their ultimate aim. In the middle of the century the experience obtained was sufficiently definite to make it clear that a policy of detailed readjustment was inadequate, and so the more thorough policy of the judicature acts eventually triumphed. LOCAL COURTS OF REQUESTS Reference has already been made to the high degree of centralisation which was reached by the common law at an early date. On the criminal side, the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace in quarter sessions and of the justices of assize provided an adequate remedy. Civil proceedings were not so well served, however, and with the decline of the local communal and seignorial courts (to some extent, at least, due to the interference of the central courts) the situation became serious. The eighteenth century attacked this problem in its own characteristic fashion. Communities which felt a special need for newer judicial organs secured special acts of Parliament, and in this way there came into existence a number of" courts of requests". They are interesting in many ways, notably because they embodied several legal heresies which did not become orthodox until a century or more later, such as a summary procedure without juries, and the examination of the parties themselves; nor did they form a part of the judicial system, for no appeal lay from them to the central courts.1 1 See Winder, The Courtl of Rttjll4Sts, Law Quarterly Review, Iii. 369. 207 208 THE COURTS AND THE PROFESSION THE REFORMED COUNTY COURTS The ancient county courts had seriously declined, although a few were more active than others. In any case, they had inherited many centuries of obscure technicalities which made them quite inadequate for the need of the new communities growing up as a result of the industrial revolution. A significant attempt to reform one of them was made in 1750 by an actl which allowed the county clerk of the sheriff of Middlesex and the suitors of the county court to sit for small claims in the various hundreds in turn. It is clear that the effect of the act is not to create a new court, but to allow the clerk and suitors of the county to adopt a summary procedure for small claims and to sit in various parts of the county for that purpose. Decisions were reached by the clerk (a barrister) and the suitors together. THE MODERN COUNTY COURTS A somewhat similar procedure was finally adopted and applied to all the counties of England. An" act for the recovery of small debts and demands" (now generally referred to as the County Courts Act, 1846) made such radical changes that it is regarded by most writers as instituting a completely new set of courts.~ In point of fact the act takes careful precautions to make it clear that its innovations are all grafted on the ancient stock of the old county court. The fruitful idea of the Middlesex experiment in sending an officer of the old county court to tour the county for small-claim business under a summary procedure was now developed. The eighteenth-century courts of requests and courts of conscience (as they were sometimes called) were by the statute now deemed to be "branches" of the county court. Paid judges, who must be barristers of standing, were to hold, in the name of the county, courts for small claims, each judge having a group of counties within his circuit. The novelty therefore consisted in the appearance of many new " branches" of the ancient county court for small claims. The old court was left untouched with its unlimited jurisdiction (if a writ 9f justicies had been brought), and is stlll the only place where outlawry could be pronounced. The act of 1846 confined the branches to distinctly small business, but they flourished so exceedingly that their jurisdiction has been steadily increased; in 1888 a consolidating actS was passed, but the flood of...

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