QUARTER SESSIONS

quarter sessions, court of). the corresponding court in a borough is presided over by a recorder. (3) the more serious offences are reserved for the judges of the superior courts sitting under a commission of oyer and terminer or gaol delivery for each county. the assize courts, as they are called, sit in general in each county twice a year, following the division of circuits; but additional assizes are also held under acts of 1876 and 1877, which permit several counties to be united together for that purpose (see circuit). london, which occupies an exceptional position in all matters of judicature, has a high criminal court of its own, established by the central criminal court act 1834, under the name of the central criminal court. its judges usually present are a rota selected from the superior judges of common law, the recorder, common serjeant, and the judge of the city of london court.[2] the criminal appeal court, to which all persons convicted on indictment may appeal, superseded in 1908 (by the criminal appeal act 1907) the court for crown cases reserved, to which any question of law arising on the trial of a prisoner could after conviction be remitted by the judge in his discretion. to the criminal appeal court there is an appeal both on questions of fact and of law (see appeal). _civil courts._--in certain special cases, civil claims of small importance may be brought before justices or stipendiaries. otherwise, and excepting the special and peculiar jurisdictions above mentioned, the civil business of england and wales may be said to be divided between the county courts (taking small cases) and the high court of justice (taking all others). the effect of the judicature acts on the constitution of the superior courts may be briefly stated. there is now one supreme court of judicature, consisting of two permanent divisions called the high court of justice and the court of appeal. the former takes the jurisdiction of the court of chancery, the three common law courts, the courts of admiralty, probate, and divorce, the courts of pleas at lancaster and durham, and the courts created by commissions of assize, oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery. the latter takes the jurisdiction of the court of appeal in chancery (including chancery of lancaster), the court of the lord warden of the stannaries, and of the exchequer chamber, and the appellate jurisdiction in admiralty and heresy matters of the judicial committee; and power is given to the sovereign to transfer the remaining jurisdiction of that court to the court of appeal. by the appellate jurisdiction act of 1876 the house of lords is enabled to sit for the hearing of appeals from the english court of appeal and the scottish and irish courts during the prorogation and dissolution of parliament. the lords of appeal, of whom three must be present, are the lord chancellor, the lords of appeal in ordinary, and peers who have held "high judicial office" in great britain or ireland. the lords in ordinary are an innovation in the constitution of the house. they hold the rank of baron for life only, have a right to sit and vote in the house during tenure of office only, and a salary of l6000 per annum. there are also many obsolete or decayed courts, of which the most noticeable are dealt with under their individual headings, as court