A Century of English Judicature. A
CENTURY
OF
ENGLISH
527
JUDICATURE.
BY VAN VF.CHTEN VEEDER. UNDER THE JUDICATURE ACT. IN his great speech introducing the Judica ture Bill in Parliament Lord Selborne enumerated the principal defects of the existing system under four heads: (i) The artificial separation of legal and equitable jurisdictions; (2) divided courts and divided jurisdictions; (3) lack of cheapness, simplicity and uniformity of procedure; (4) necessity of improving the constitution of the court of appeals. "We must bring together," he said, "our many divided courts and divided juris dictions by erecting or rather re-erecting— for after all there was in the beginning of our constitutional system one supreme Court of Judicature—a supreme court which, operating under convenient arrangements and with sufficient number of judges, shall exercise one single undivided jurisdiction, and shall unite within itself all the jurisdictions of all the separate superior courts of law and equity now in existence." (Hansard's Pari. Debates, vol. 214, pp. 331, 337.) Accordingly the Curia Regis of the Norman kings was taken as a model, and all the existing courts were consolidated into one Supreme Court of Judicature. (The first Judicature Act was passed in 1873, and was designed to take effect in 1874; but this not being practicable its operation was postponed until 1875, when a second act was passed, and the judges took their seats as members of the Supreme Court.) This Supreme Court was divided into two sections, the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal. The High Court is a court of first instance, exercising general jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters. It consisted originally of five divisions, corres ponding to the old courts, of which it was made up. But in 1881 the Common Pleas and Exchequer were finally abolished; and
by subsequent legislation the Court of the Master of the Rolls was likewise abolished, and that judge was placed at the head of a division of the Court of Appeal. Thus all the business was consolidated into the High Court, of which the Lord Chief Justice of England is permanent president. This court sits in three divisions. King's Bench, Chan cery, and Probate, Divorce and Admiralty. The business assigned to each division cor responds to its ancient jurisdiction; but the changes effected by the Judicature Act are these: any judge may sit in any court belong ing to any division or may take the place of any other judge; and any relief which might be given by any of the courts whose juris diction is now vested in the Supreme Court may be given by any judge or division of the Supreme Court, and any ground of claim or defence which would have been recognized in any of the old courts may be recognized by any division of the new court. Where the rules of equity, common law and admiralty conflict, equity prevails in the absence of specific provisions. Beside this uniform' administration of the principles of law and equity, the act also provided a common and simple code of procedure. The main charac teristics of this procedure are similar to those which have long been familiar in this country: a single form of action for the protection of all primary rights, whether legal or equitable; a limited pleading charac terized by a plain and concise statement of the substantive facts; provision for joinder of different causes of action and the bringing in of new parties, with a view to the adjust ment of the substantial rights of all the parties and the complete determination of the whole controversy in a single action.
