SCOTLAND. 
the Supreme Courts; that is the Court of Session, the Jury 
Court, and the Court of Exchequer. 2. The Inferior 
Courts, or the Admiralty, Commissary, Sheriff, Burgh 
Royal, Burgh of Regality and Barony, Baron, Lyon, 
Just ice of Peace, and Commissioners of Supply Courts. 
The Court of Session is the highest civil judicatory. It 
was established in the place of two other courts, the Daily 
Council and the Session, by the statute 1537, c. 36. under 
the name of the Council and Session. James V. dignified 
it with the name of the College of Justice, and the Judges 
with that of Senators of the College of Justice. The 
Judges are now, as they were at first, fifteen in number, 
including their president; and are all named by the king. 
Seven were churchmen till 1640, c. 26; and although that 
act, as a usurpation act, fell under the general repeal at the 
Restoration, its spirit has been followed, and no churchman 
has since sat upon the bench. The court continued to sit in 
one chamber till 1808, when it was divided into two, called 
the First and Second Divisions, the Lord President and 
seven Judges constituting the first, and the Lord Justice 
Clerk, (the head of the Court of Justiciary) with six Judges, 
constituting the second. These divisions have independent, 
but co-ordinate jurisdiction, and are often called to consult 
together as the entire Court of Session. 
The powers of the Court of Session are very extensive. 
Its original jurisdiction extends to ail matters of civil right 
not under the value of 2 51. with the exception of maritime 
and consistorial cases, brieves, and some others, to be 
noticed in the sequel; and its powers of review, by advo¬ 
cation, suspension, or reduction, have no limits, but em¬ 
brace the decrees of all inferior judges whatsoever, including 
the Judge Admiral and Commissaries. While its jurisdic¬ 
tion is cumulative generally with that of all other civil 
courts, it is privative or exclusive in all competitions of 
heritable rights, reductions and proving the tenor of deeds, 
mercantile bankruptcy, cessio bonorum, judicial sale, resti¬ 
tution of minors, complaints of irregularities in the election 
of burgh magistrates and members of parliament, &c. The 
Court of Session is likewise a court of equity, proceeding 
not on fixed equity law as in England, but on the rules of 
conscience, giving aid in the actions brought before them, 
■when there is no remedy in law. It has a yet greater arbi¬ 
trary power, though now much more sparingly used than 
anciently, when precedent was less extended and legal prin¬ 
ciple less settled; this is termed its nobile ojficium, and was 
used to remedy all contingent public wrongs, so far as even 
to interfere in market prices. The power to pass Acts of 
Sederunt, as they are called, was likewise 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 stat. 6 Geo. 
IV. c. 120, the Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court is 
joined to the Lords of Session, and power given to them 
jointly to make orders and regulations for the Court of 
Session, Court ofTeinds, Jury Court, and all the inferior 
courts. Such bye-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-House, and 
Inner-House, which last, both divisions are alike denomi¬ 
nated. Causes originating in the Court of Session as 
ordinary actions, do not pass through the Bill-Chamber. 
This last is the first stage of the process of review of the 
judgments of inferior courts; and in this stage it is deter¬ 
mined whether these should be admitted into the supreme 
court, or remitten, as properly decided, as to the inferior" 
judicatory. The Bill-chamber, besides, is the jurisdiction 
for all summary and urgent process, as interdicts against 
illegal proceedings, relief from illegal execution, imprison¬ 
ment, &c., and, having 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 sub¬ 
ject to the review of the Inner-House. 
Vol. XXII. No. 1545. 
857 
Formerly the Inner-House judges sat by rotation in the 
Outer-House as Lords Ordinary. After several experiments, 
permanent Lords Ordinary were established; and by the 
stat. of last session, 6 Geo. IV. chap. 120, these are put 
upon their present footing, 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 when¬ 
ever 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 originate in the Court of 
Session, and sucb as have passed the Bill-chamber; and the 
Lord Ordinary on the bills has the special duty of judging 
in recissory 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) con¬ 
sists of a president and three ordinary judges. The Lord 
President presides in the first division and the Lord Justice 
Clerk in the second. The judgments pronounced in the 
Outer-House are subject to the review of the Inner. In con¬ 
sequence 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 note to the Inner-House (instead of the old form of reclaim¬ 
ing 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 Ordinary. The Inner-House, in both its divisions, is 
entirely 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 into the Inner, such 
as petitions and summary complaints in bankruptcies, com¬ 
plaints in elections, appointment of judicial factors, curat ores 
bonis, &c. 
The judgments of the Inner-House are subject to the re¬ 
view of the House of Lords, as coming by the Union in the 
place of the Scottish Parliament. In this final review the 
same salutary principle is rigidly observed, namely, that the 
court of the last resort shall j udge on the same pleadings in 
law as were before the court below. 
The principal advantages intended by the new regulations, 
not only in tbe Court of Session, but in the inferior judica- 
catories, to all of which they apply, are complete production 
in the outset of all documents that the action is 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 subject of discussion in the 
House of Lords, much diminution of that excess and compli¬ 
cation of appeals which had become so great a grievance to 
the judges in thathigh tribunal. The parties areforcedto bring 
out their whole cause, in fact and law, in their original plead¬ 
ings, when the record is closed, and no further facts or pleas 
allowed, except of matters newly come to knowledge, when' 
the payment of a suitable part of the previous expences must 
be made before these are admitted. This will render legal 
proceedings not only more precise and brief, but more re¬ 
spectable than when parties in a law-suit watched each other, 
and let their strength out by degrees; when cunning 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 admitted or 
not ordered to be ascertained by evidence taken on a com¬ 
mission, and chiefly in distant places, the Lord Ordinary may , 1 
if he sees proper, send the whole facts, or such part of them 
as he may think necessary in the form of particular 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 
101 last 
