Court

HUNDRED. See Hundred Court.

In legisiation. A legislative assembly. Parliament is called in the old books a court of the king, nobility, and conmons assembled. Finch, Law, b. 4, e. 1, p. #30; Fleta, lib. 2, ¢. 2., This meaning of the word has been retuined in the titles of some deliberative bodies, such ag the general court of Massachu- Betts, (the legislature.) In international law, The person and auile of the sovereign; the place where the fovereign sojourns with his regal retinue, wherever that may be. The English government is spoken of in diplomacy as the court of St, James, because the palace of St. James is the official palace, In practice. An organ of the government, belonging to the judicial department, whose function is the application of the laws to controversies brought before it and the public administration of justice. The presence of a sufficient number of the members of such a body regularly convened iu an authorized place at an appointed time, engiged im the full and regular performance of its funetions. 20 Ala. 446; 20 Ark. 77. Agourt may be more particularly described as an organized body with defined powers, meeting at certain times and places for the hearing and decisjon of causes and other matters brought before it, and aided in this, its proper business, by its proper ollicers, viz., attorneys and counsel to present and janagethe business, clerks to record and attestits acts and decisions, and ministerial ofticers to exeeute its commands, and secure due order inits proveedings. Burrill. The place where justice is judicially administered. Co, Litt. 68a; 3 Bl. Comm. 23, The jude, or the body of judges, presiding ever a court, The words “court” and “judge, "or “judges, "are fraquently used in our statutes as synonymous. When used with reference to orders made by the court or judges, they are to be so understood. 3 Ind. 239, The term “court” may be construed to mean the judyes of the court, or to include the judges and jury, according to the connection and the object of its use. 19 Vt. 478. Classification. Courts may be classified and divided according toseveral methods, the following being the more usual: dicial proceedings ure enrolled, or recorded, for a perpetual memory and testimony, and which have power to fine or imprison for contempt. Error lies totheir judgments, and they generally possess a seal. Courts not of reeord are those of inferior dignity, which have no power to fine or imprison, and in which the proceedings are not enrolled or recorded. Superior and trferior courts; the former being courts of general original jurisdiction in the first instance, and which exercise a control or supervision over a system of lower courts, either by appeal, error, or certiorari; the latter being courts of smail or restricted jurisdiction, and subject to the review or correction of higher courts. Sometimes tha former term is used to denote a particular group or system of courts of high powers, and all others are called “inferior courts.” To constitute a court a superior court as to any class of actions, within the common-law meaning of thatterm, its jurisdiction of such actions must be unconditional, so that the only thing requisite to enable the court to take cognizance of them is the acquisition of jurisdiction of the persons of the parties. 4 Bosw. 547. An inferior court is a court whose judgments or decrees can be reviewed, on appeal or writ of error, by a higher tribunal, whether that tribunal be the circuit or supreme court. 18 Ala, 521. Civil and criminal courts; the former be. ing such as are established for the adjudication of controversies between subject and subject, or the ascertainment, enforcement, and redress of private rights; the latter, such as are charged with the administration of the criminal laws, and ithe punishment of wrongs te the public. Hquity courts and lav courts; the former being such as possess the jurisdiction of a chancellor, apply the rules and principles of chancery law, and follow the procedure in equity; the latter, such as have no equitable powers, but administer justice according to the rules and practice of the common law. As to the division of courts according to, their jurisdiction, see JURISDICTION,

5. 9. The Practice or BaU Court was a court auxiliary to the King's Bench, presided over by each puisne judge in rotation. 10. The Common Pleas or Common Bench, I. Communis Bancus, Communia Placita, is also derived from the old King's Court, by a clause in Magna Charta fixing the hearing of common pleas (civil cases, pleas between subject and subject) at Westminster. It had the exclusive jurisdiction of real actions, and universal jurisdiction, for a long time also exclusive, oi personal actions between subject and subject. There were four puisne justices and a chief justice. Appeals were anciently taken to the K. B.; but in the present century only to the judges of the K. B. and the barons of the Exchequer in the Exchequer Chamber (Court, 12), and thence to the House of Lords (Court, 13). 11. The Exchequer was originally the.royal treasury; and its functions were to keep the royal accounts, to collect the royal revenues and debts, and escheats. Common pleas were anciently held there as matter of favor, the court affording peculiar advantages by its records, which included the

INSTANCE. Vide Anstance Court.