SCOTLAND. 



.Statistics. 



Jury Court 



The Jury. 



Civil juris- 

 diction of 

 the circuit. 



Court of 

 Justiciary. 



nine is requisite. Its meeting takes place every al- 

 ternate Wednesday in Session time; and,, as a distinct 

 court, it has its own clerks, but is attended by the same 

 practitioners. The act 1707 details its powers and 

 duties. It regulates valuations and sales of teinds, 

 augments the stipends of the clergy, disjoins or 

 annexes parishes according to exigency, erects new 

 churches, &c. The cases in this court go through 

 their stages in the Outer-House before the Lord Or- 

 dinary on the bills. 



There is a class of actions in which no discretion is 

 left to the Lords Ordinary of the Court of Session, to 

 send or not to send, wholly or partially, the facts to be 

 tried by jury. Cases of this class, although they must all 

 originate in the Court of Session, (for the Jury Court has 

 not been raised higher than a sort of accessory although 

 .supreme court,) must be sent at once for entire trial 

 and determination to the Jury Court, without remain- 

 ing longer in the Court of Session than passing through 

 the form of being remitted, without any previous dis- 

 cussion of Jaw or relevancy. This class of cases em- 

 braces actions of damages for injury to the person, 

 both real and verbal, as assault and defamation, for 

 injury to patrimonial rights, for breach of contract, 

 for injury by delinquency and quasi delinquency ; all 

 actions on the responsibility of carriers, ship-owners, 

 inn-keepers, actions to abate nuisances ; all actions of 

 reduction on furiosity, idiocy, facility, lesion, force, 

 or fear ; all actions on insurance of all kinds, on char- 

 ter parties, &c. Such of this class of cases as must ori- 

 ginate in the Court of Admiralty, must likewise be sent 

 .at once to the Jury Court, provided the amount shall be 

 40 and upwards. The Judge Admiral, like the Lord 

 Ordinary, has an option to remit or not cases not of this 

 class-. The Jury Court have the power to remit back 

 points of law in the class of cases allotted to it, to the 

 Lord Ordinary or Judge Admiral. When points of law 

 -are sent back to th court, the facts come again to be 

 tried in the Jury Court, li in the Jury Court the facta 

 are admitted on both sides and trial of them unneces- 

 sary, the case is sent back for decision by the courts 

 from which it came. 



From the year 1815, when the trial by jury in civil 

 cases commenced till the passing of the late act, {July 

 1825,) the judges of the Jury Court were only three in 

 number ; a chief commissioner and two ordinary com- 

 missioners, called Lord Commissioners of the Jury 

 Court in civil causes, and eligible from the Lords of 

 Session or Barons of Exchequer, with the exception 

 of the Chief, who must be qualified to be appointed a 

 Lord of Session. By the late act two additional or- 

 dinary commissioners have been added to the num- 

 ber. The Jury Court has its terms and sittings, after 

 the manner of the courts in England; and the judges 

 travel circuits twice a-year, nearly at the same time 

 with the Lords of Justiciary. The trial itself is con- 

 ducted pretty nearly upon the English model. The 

 jurymen are twelve in number, chosen by ballot from 

 a list returned by the Sheriff, and they are required 

 to agree in their verdict. 



It is necessary to mention here the Court of Justi- 

 ciary or supreme criminal court, as exercising by sta- 

 tute a certain civil jurisdiction. This is only on the 

 circuits, and arose from the convenience of the pre- 

 sence in the circuit towns of judges who were Lords 

 of Session. By 20. Gee. II. c. 43; and 54. Geo. III. 



c. 67. this jurisdiction is bestowed by way of appeal Statistics. 

 from the sentences of inferior courts, in all cases not *" 



exceeding 25 in value exclusive of the costs. This J 

 , . . v ,, , , . ... . Estabitsn- 



decision is final, unless the circuit judges certify the me nts?. 



case, as they may do, to the Court of Session. 



The Court of Exchequer is the court of the revenue. Cjurt of . 

 It was remodelled at the union on the English form,^ xc h e T ler - 

 and consists of the Lord High Treasurer of Great Bri- 

 tain, a chief baron, and three ordinary or puisne ba- 

 rons,* who must be either Serjeants at law or English 

 barristers, or Scots advocates of four years standing. 

 This court " has a peculiar jurisdiction as to all duties 

 of custom or excise, and other revenues pertaining 

 either to the king or prince of Scotland, and as to all 

 honours and estates real and personal, forfeitures o'r 

 penalties of what nature soever arising to the Crown 

 within Scotland; and as to all questions relating to 

 the said matters which they are authorised to deter- 

 mine either in law or equity by the same forms that 

 have been used in the English Exchequer." (Ersfe. 

 13. 31.) By the 3d Geo. IV. c. 91. the jurisdic- 

 tion of this court has been increased by the power to 

 judge in all complaints by burgesses against borough 

 magistrates in relation to their administration of the 

 revenue or common good of the borough. Although 

 this court judges by the forms of the English Court of 

 Exchequer, the real estate of the debtor must be at- 

 tached, and all questions regarding it determined by 

 the rules of the law of Scotland ; and when the Crown's 

 title to honours or lands is disputed, the Court of Ses- 

 sion is the proper jurisdiction. 



In our articles ADMIRAL and ADMIRALTY, we gave High Court 

 some account of the former Lord High Admiral of f Admi- 

 Scotland, and of the Vice-Admiral, who is still ap- ralt y- 

 pointed, although his duty is done by the Judge- 

 Admiral, whose office is now entirely judicial, and 

 both civil and criminal. (See statute, l681, c. 16.) 

 Although styled an inferior court, this is only rela- 

 tively to the Court, of Session, which has the powe* 

 of reviewing its decrees ; but it is a supreme court in" 

 respect of its exclusive jurisdiction, in the rst in- 

 stance, in what are strictly maritime causes, such as 

 freight, salvage, charter party, damage done at sea, 

 wrecks, &c. It has also, cumulatively with the Court 

 of Session, jurisdiction in mercantile cases, such as biils 

 of exchange, contracts, insurance, &c. provided the 

 issue be not of less value than 25, (1. & 2. Geo. IV. 

 c. 39.) As already stated when treating of the Jury 

 Court, the Judge Admiral may remit certain cases, and 

 must remit others to that court for trial (6 Geo. IV. c. 

 120.) The same act takes expressly from the High 

 Court of Admiralty of Scotland, and vests in that of Eng- 

 land, all jurisdiction ' in questions and matters relat- 

 ing to prizes and capture in war, and condemnation of 

 vessels as such, any law or practice to the contrary not- 

 withstanding." The Vice-Admiral, or now rather the 

 High Court of Admiralty, has the power of naming in- 

 ferior deputies, with local jurisdictions, whose sen- 

 tences are subject to review by the high court. The 

 Magistrates of Edinburgh claim an independent 

 right of admiralty in the port of Leith, emanating 

 from the Crown, and not from the Court of Admi- 

 ralty or the Vice-Admiral. This matter is disputed 

 by the Judge-Admiral, and is not yet determined. 

 The High Court of Admiralty can review its own 

 judgments, even after extracted decree, and that both- 



* The legal number is four ordinary barons, but on a late vacancy the expediency 'Of filling it up was carried in parliament by so 

 small a majority that it was not filled up, and has not since been. 



