SCOTLAND. 



Judicial 

 Establish- 

 ment i. 

 Acts of 

 Sedenuit. 



Statistics, to pass Adt of Sederunl, as they are called, was like- 

 wise in use to trench materially on the law of the land ; 

 but has long been limited in practice to regulations 

 or rules for judicial forms. This is recognised by 

 the very latest statutes; for by the slut. <i. (u-o. IV. 

 c. liiO. the Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court is 

 joined to the Lords of Session, and power given to 

 them jointly to make order* and regulations for the 

 Court of Session, Court of Teind*. Jury Court, and all 

 the inferior courts. Such by-laws, being sanctioned 

 by statute, have the force of statute so far as they go. 



There are three stages of judicial business in the 

 Court of Session, viz. the Bill Chamber, Outer- Ilouxe, 

 and Inner-House, which last, both divisions are alike 

 denominated. Causes originating in the Court of Ses- 

 sion as ordinary actions, do not pass through the Bill- 

 Chambcr. This last is the first stage of the process of 

 review of the judgments of inferior courts ; and in 

 this stage it is determined whether these should be 

 admitted into the supreme court, or remitted, as pro- 

 perly decided, to the inferior iudicatory. The Hill- 

 Chamber, besides, is the jurisdiction for all summary 

 and urgent process, as interdicts against illegal pro- 

 ceedings, relief from illegal execution, imprisonment, 

 &c. and, haying no vacation, is always accessible. The 

 judges, with the exception of the Lord President 

 and Lord Justice Clerk, officiate in rotation during 

 vacation ; and one judge, the junior of all, does the duty 

 in time of session. Nearly all decisions in the Bill- 

 Chamber are subject to the review of the Inner-House. 



Formerly the Inner-House judges sat by rotation in 

 the Outer-House as Lords Ordinary. After several 

 experiments, permanent Lords Ordinary were esta- 

 blished ; and by the stat. of last session, 6. Geo. IV, 

 chap. 1,20. these are put upon their present looting, 

 viz. the seven junior Lords of Session sit in the Outer- 

 House as permanent Lords Ordinary ; subject to be 

 occasionally called into the Inner-House whenever 

 the whole fifteen judges consult on any cases in 

 which one division requires the opinion of the other. 

 The seven permanent Lords Ordinary prepare and 

 judge in causes in the Outer-House, both such as origi- 

 nate in the Court of Session, and such as have passed the 

 Bill-Chamber ; and the Lord Ordinary on the bills has 

 the special duty of judging in rescissory actions or 

 reductions, and some other cases which are remitted 

 from the Inner-House for discussion in the Outer. 



The Inner-House of each division (by the same 

 act) consists of a president and three ordinary jud- 

 ges. The Lord President presides in the first divi- 

 sion and the Lord Justice Clerk in the second. The 

 judgments pronounced in the Outer-House are sub- 

 ject to the review of the Inner. In consequence 

 of a more mature and perfect preparation of the cause 

 under the prescriptions of the new act, there is no 

 longer any form for submitting his own judgment to 

 the review of the Lord Ordinary ; but the losing party 

 presents a cote to the Inner-House (instead of the old 

 form of reclaiming petition,) reciting the judgment 

 of which alteration is craved, and prints along with it, 

 the proceedings held before the Lord Ordinary, called 

 the record, including cases if they have been ordered, 

 so that nothing in fact or law is laid before the court 

 of review that was not in the view of the Lord Ordi- 

 nary. The Inner-House, in both its divisions, is en- 

 tirely occupied with this its province of review, with 

 the exception of cases of a certain kind which are not 

 competent in the Outer-House, and come at once in- 

 to the Inner, such aa petitions and summary com* 



plaints in bankruptcies, complaint* in elections, ap- IM* 

 pointment of judicial factor*, curatoret bomt, 6tc. ' 



The judgments of the Inner- 1 louse are subject to 

 the review of the House of Lords, as coning by the 

 Union in the place of the Hcottish parliament. In Appeal 

 this final review the same salutary principle is rigidly HOOM 

 observed, namely, that the court of the last retort shall 

 judge on the same pleadings in law as were before the 

 court below. 



The principal advantages intended by the new re- 

 gulation*, not only in the Court of Session but in the oftaeaev 

 inferior judicatories, to all of which they apply, are "faiatJ 

 complete production in the outset of documents founded 

 on; greater accuracy, precision and brevity of pleading; 

 and a complete separation of the facts of the case from 

 the law ; and, as the latter only is to be made the sub- 

 ject of discussion in the Honse of Lords, much dimi- 

 nution of that excess and complication of appeals, which 

 had become so ^reat a grievance to the judges in that 

 high tribunal. The parties are forced to bring out their 

 whole cause, in fact and law, in their original plead- 

 ings, when the record it doted, and no farther facts 

 or pleas allowed, except of matters newly come to 

 knowledge, when the payment of a suitable pan of 

 the previous expences must be made before these are 

 admitted. This will render legal proceedings not 

 only more precise and brief, but more respectable 

 than when parties in a law-suit watched each other, 

 and let their strength out by degrees ; when cun- 

 ning was mistaken for legal skill, and slovenliness 

 and inaccuracy rendered disputes inextricable, and 

 delay intolerable. 



In all causes not expressly allotted to the Jury 

 Court, of which in the sequel, where the facts are 

 either not admitted or not ordered to be ascertain- 

 ed by evidence taken on a commission, and chiefly 

 in distant places, the Lord Ordinary may, if he 

 sees proper, send the whole facts, or such part of 

 them as he may think necessary in the form of parti- 

 cular issues to be tried by a jury in the Jury Court. 

 The verdict of the jury finally settles the facts, so that 

 no question of fact tried by jury can now be the subject 

 of discussion by way of review either in the Inner- 

 House or House of Lords. No facts can in any case 

 be now discussed in the court of the last resort, inas- 

 much as the judgment on the facts by the Court of 

 Session, when the matter has not been tried by jury, 

 has the force of a verdict. When the verdict of the 

 jury is returned, or the facts otherwise disposed of, 

 the Lord Ordinary decides the cause, or takes it to re- 

 port, as it is called, that is, to be decided at once by 

 the Inner-House. If he decides it himself, the party 

 dissatisfied carries it to the Inner-House by a reclaim- 

 ing note, and prints the pleadings, called the record, 

 which has been made up before the Lord Ordinary. 

 On this record the court decide, after hearing counsel, 

 either without or with farther written pleadings, in 

 the form of concise cotes, as they think fit. By these 

 forms it is expected that written pleadings, which 

 rendered the course of law cumbrous and tardy, will 

 be very essentially abridged, and the Scottish bar be 

 called to a greatly increased exercise of the more strict- 

 ly forensic talent of vioa voce statement. 



The Court of Session has another function or cha- Court ^ 

 racter. It is the Commission, as it is called, for ike Toad*. 

 plantation of kirks and valuation of leindt. This com- 

 mission was, after several temporary commissions, ren- 

 dered perpetual by statute 1?09* c. 9 The whole 

 fifteen judges sit in this court, and the old quorum of 



