130 
Indiana University Studies 
daily the United States Supreme Court is determining and 
protecting social interests as perhaps no other tribunal in the 
world. 
Courts. The socialization of the law has manifested itself 
in this period in England in the reform of the system of 
organization of the courts and in the reform of legal procedure 
as in no other way. By the Judicature Acts of 1873, 1875, 
1876, and 1881, there was accomplished a reform of the judi- 
cial system of England and of the legal procedure in the com- 
mon law courts, which had been needed as far back as the 
first part of the Period of Equity. Refusal to make this 
reform had been largely responsible for the rise of the Court 
of Chancery; this kind of reform had been attempted at the 
time of the Restoration and at subsequent times without suc- 
cess. 
By the Judicature Acts all the superior courts were com- 
bined into one system called the Supreme Court of Judicature. 
This was divided into three branches: the High Court of 
Justice, the Court of Appeal, and the House of Lords and the 
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (four paid members 
of Lords and four paid members of Judicial Committee) . The 
High Court of Justice was in turn divided into three divi- 
sions: The King’s Bench Division, the Chancery Division, 
and the Admiralty, Probate, and Divorce Division. Besides 
this great court there were established the County Courts, 
created in 1846 to take the place of the local courts which 
had died; the Assize Courts and the Central Criminal Court 
(London) ; and the Quarter Sessions of the Justices of the 
Peace. The County Courts were given jurisdiction over 
amounts not to exceed £50, allowed a jury of five, and given 
fifty-four circuits with fifty-four judges, and an appeal to the 
High Court was a matter of right where the amount was over 
£20. The judges of the King’s Bench Division were required 
to do the work in the Central Criminal Court. The Quarter 
Sessions were divided into Petty Sessions and Police Court. 
The Court of Appeal was made to consist of the lord chan- 
cellor, the chief justice of England (King’s Bench), the 
master of the rolls, and five lords justices of appeal, as 
ordinary members, and it was provided that any ex-lord 
chancellor might, if he was willing, sit as a member. 
Legal Procedure. By the Judicature Acts there was created 
a new legal procedure compounded out of the best in com- 
