by statute directed to be inflicted; and it has moreover an inherent jurisdiction to punish all criminal acts, both those already established by common law or statute, and such as have never previously come before the courts and are not within any statute.
The sheriff of each county is the proper criminal judge in all crimes occurring within the county which infer only an arbitrary punishment, and if the case is tried with a jury the High Court has no power of review on the merits. Even in cases indicted to the High Court the accused is, under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act of 1887, regularly asked to plead in the sheriff court, and minor objections to the indictment can be wholly or in part disposed of there. Borough magistrates and justices of the peace have jurisdiction in petty cases occurring within the burgh or county, and in a number of minor offences under various statutes.
The Court of Session exercises the highest civil jurisdiction in Scotland, with the House of Lords as a Court of Appeal.
Ireland.
In Ireland persons charged with crime are as a rule brought before a court of petty sessions. Two magistrates are sufficient to try a case to be decided at petty sessions: in some instances only one is requisite. Offences are divided into two classes, those in which justices have a 'summary jurisdiction,' in which cases they hear and determine the complaint, the Petty Sessions Act providing for an appeal in certain cases. The second class is 'indictable offences.' In these cases the justice merely takes the depositions and returns the case for trial to the next court having jurisdiction to try it—quarter sessions or assize court as the case may be. In the event of the prosecution failing to prove its case, the magistrates refuse informations. The Attorney-general may send up a bill at assizes, even without the preliminary magisterial investigation, or in a case in which a magistrate has wrongly refused informations. There is this difference, however, between quarter sessions in Ireland and in England: in England they are presided over by an unpaid chairman, who need not be a lawyer and who is elected by his fellow justices of the peace for the county; while in Ireland they are presided over by a paid official, who must be a practising barrister of ten years' standing, appointed by the Crown, and who is also judge of the county court (which corresponds to the English county court). The criminal jurisdiction of a county court judge is very extensive, and the Recorder of Dublin has practically the same criminal jurisdiction as a judge of the High Court. The assizes are presided over by one of the common law judges of the High Court of Justice. In the quarter sessions, recorder's court, and assizes the trial is by jury in all cases save appeals from petty sessions. In addition to the ordinary unpaid justices there are paid resident magistrates. The Criminal Law and Procedure Act contains special provisions for dealing with crime in certain cases. Nearly all the clauses of the Criminal Law and Procedure Act, however, require a proclamation of the Lord Lieutenant in Council before they come into force. In the city of Dublin, the divisional magistrates for the police district of Dublin metropolis deal with all summary cases arising within their jurisdiction, and their jurisdiction is somewhat more extensive than that of the ordinary county justices.
