This was bound to affect the quality of the judiciary: judges knew very well their jobs were at risk if the sovereign did not like their judgments. The Act establishes the Lord Chief Justice as President of the Courts of England and Wales and Head of its Judiciary, a role previously performed by the Lord Chancellor. Judy Hodgson (ed), The English Legal Heritage, Oyez Publishing, 1979. When Henry came to the throne, there were just 18 judges in the country – compared to more than 40,000 today. Chief Justice Lord Mansfield was in the Cabinet between 1757 and 1765, for example and more recently Lord Cave was Home Secretary for a couple of months at the end of the First World War when he was also a serving Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, or Law Lord. Keep up to date with the latest news, judgments & publications. The judiciary were becoming separate from the executive. Changes evolved slowly; even in the middle of the 14th century, under Edward III, there could be close collaboration between the Court of King’s Bench and the King’s Council. The common law system was an improvement on what had gone before, but it was still slow, highly technical – making procedural mistakes that could ruin a case all too likely – and vulnerable to corruption, especially when juries were used. Trial by combat gradually fell into disuse for civil cases, although it wasn’t until someone involved in a dispute in 1818 tried to insist on it that it was realised this was still, technically, an option. From that group evolved the justices in eyre, who possessed a mixed administrative and judicial jurisdiction. By the middle of the 13th century, knights had begun to join clerics on the bench. Martin de Pateshull, Archdeacon of Norfolk and Dean of St Paul’s, became a Justice of the bench in 1217. The Lord Chancellor’s role changed drastically on April 3 2006 as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. Magistrates’ courts hark back to the Anglo-Saxon moot court and the manorial court, but their official birth came in 1285, during the reign of Edward I, when ‘good and lawful men’ were commissioned to keep the King’s peace. The Royal Commission on Assizes and Quarter Sessions, 1966-1969, led to the abolition of courts of assize and quarter sessions and the establishment of a new Crown Court to deal with business from both, under the terms of the Courts Act 1971. The judiciary, the government and the constitution, Judicial Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020/25, Lord Chief Justice: Judicial Equality and Diversity Statement, Pre-Application Judicial Education Programme (PAJE), Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts, Coronavirus (COVID-19) advice and guidance, Judiciary and Data Protection: Privacy Notice, Judicial Press Office: COVID-19 arrangements. Its jurisdiction passed to the Court of Appeal. His son Edward VI and daughter Mary I did include judges on their own Privy Councils, but Elizabeth I excluded them for 40 years. It’s contradictory in places, and rather confusing. The justices in eyre were not, to put it mildly, popular. In an era when the church was rich and the King poor, joining the clergy was often just seen as a sensible means of support. So the King remained principal law-maker, with the judges as interpreters of that law; a potentially uneasy relationship. Theodore FT Plucknett, A Concise History of the Common Law, Butterworth & Co, 1956 This dealt only with civil disputes, for example property and contract cases, and applied the law of equity – even-handedness or fairness. Find out who supports the judiciary in their vital role, and how they are trained. Either side could employ their own champions, so the system wasn’t perhaps as fair as it might be. There were two problems with this method, which was often used to try suspected witches: the accused was tied right thumb to left toe, left thumb to right toe, which made it almost impossible to sink; and opinion is divided as to whether those who did sink were fished out afterwards. Justice for the Anglo-Saxons and even after the Norman invasion of 1066 was a combination of local and royal government. The Judicial Office is committed to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. The seeds of the modern justice system were sown by Henry II (1154-1189), who established a jury of 12 local knights to settle disputes over the ownership of land. Find out more about Who are the judiciary? We aim to continually improve the user experience for everyone, and apply the relevant accessibility standards. Even today, we know them as the ‘common law’. These courts also took over the quarter sessions work in their cities. During this period judges gradually gained independence from the monarch and the government. We aim to continually improve the user experience for everyone, and apply the relevant accessibility standards. Meanwhile, by the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods, assize judges on the six circuits in England were mainly dealing with the most serious crimes not normally handled by the local Quarter Sessions, run by JPs. The first professional judges were appointed from the order of serjents-at-law. Judiciary and Data Protection: Privacy Notice, Find out more about Judiciary and Data Protection: Privacy Notice, Judicial Press Office: COVID-19 arrangements. Criminal and civil disputes could also be decided by trial by combat, with a win held to prove either innocence or the right to whatever property was being disputed. The same Act established the High Court and the Court of Appeal and provided a right of appeal in civil cases to the Court of Appeal. Under this system, the accused would be forced to pick up a red hot bar of iron, pluck a stone out of a cauldron of boiling water, or something equally painful and dangerous. On 26 July 2007 the House of Lords’ Select Committee on the Constitution published a report, Relations between the executive, the judiciary and Parliament. The courts of Great Britain are Crown courts in that their jurisdiction is derived from the power of the Crown. Find out more about History of the judiciary The judiciary, the government and the constitution But as the years went by, the Court of Chancery began to be known for the same problems it had been set up to combat: expense and delay. From that group evolved the justices in eyre, who possessed a mixed administrative and judicial jurisdiction.The justices in eyre were not, to put it mildly, popular. This was important, because it meant that the judiciary now had real professional experience of the law before moving on to the bench. A third common law court of justice, the Court of Exchequer, eventually emerged as the financial business of the Royal Household was split off to a specialist group of officials. County courts, dealing with civil cases, were created under the County Courts Act 1846. In 1553, Mary I also removed three judges from office, but Elizabeth I made no changes on assuming the throne – although she did remove one later during her reign. Although one of the Divisions of the High Court is still called Chancery, all courts could now administer both equity and common law – with equity to reign supreme in any dispute. Unsurprisingly, for two centuries after this the judiciary kept almost entirely away from politics.