Judiciary of Great Nortend

The Judiciary of Great Nortend is the branch of the government of Great Nortend that is responsible for resolving disputes between subjects as well as between the Crown and subjects by maintaining and upholding the law of the land. The judicial system is split into the sessions courts and the Royal courts. The former are presided over mostly by lay-men, usually either appointed wardens of the peace or local officials. Whereas wardens of the peace and certain judicial officials can be removed by the Sheriff of the county, the stewards of the manorial sessions may only be removed by the respective Lord of the Manor. Royally appointed justices and commissioners sit on the Royal courts by writ, and can be only removed by the Sovereign.

The Law

Main article: Law of Great Nortend

The Erbonian legal system is a mix of customary, regular, civil and statute law, based mostly on an adversarial system. There are five traditional categories of 'law'. These categories are: 1. Criminal law; 2. Civil law; 3. Admiralty law; 4. Martial law; 5. Canon law. The first two of these, criminal law and civil law, are known as chamber law. This is a broad term which refers to the mix of customary and regular law espoused in chamber precedents, i. e. precedents in judgments inrolled on the court rolls of the King's Chamber or Common Chamber, which give rise to the various traditional crimes and causes.

There are different courts which apply these different categories of law. The courts can roughly be divided into the sessions, the chamber courts, and the official courts.

The sessions are local courts based around the manor and county. They are not official courts of record, and have juries of suitours. They are presided over by non-professional judges, mainly recorders, stewards and wardens of the roll. While they apply chamber law, they have no power to create precedents by single judgment. Rather, new customary rules can be established over time, although this is quite rare nowadays. Most of the ancient law originates in the sessions.

The chamber courts are filled with judges appointed by the Crown. They apply chamber law and statute law, and can create chamber precedents binding on other courts. The term also often includes the Courts of Eyre, though at law there is no such thing as a 'Court of Eyre'. Rather, individual judges of the two chambers are commissioned by the Crown by various writs of commission to go on circuit and dispense justice. The collection of officials in these writs of commission are also collectively known as the 'Eyre', although this term properly refers to the circuits which the Eyre goes on. An Eyre is unable to create chamber precedent itself; however, once the judgments of the Eyre are inrolled in the chamber rolls at the termination of the Eyre, they become at law chamber precedents.

The official courts are special courts which deal with Admiralty law, martial law and most importantly, canon law. They rely on statutes as well as "common conscience" to decide cases, rather than the precedents recorded on the court rolls. Canon law importantly provides a means of softening the rigour of the chamber courts. An important plea is that of mens corrupta, which if successfully pleaded in chamber court criminal causes, can move the case into the canon law courts where there is no penalty of death though the burden of proof for the Crown is much lower.

Judges

Court dress of the justices of the Chamber Courts.

Lords Justices

The Lords Justices are the justices, or rather suitours, of the Court of Counsellours, where they are known as Law Counsellours. Lords Justices are appointed typically from senior chamber justices and are members of the House of Lords, being created a knight banneret by the Sovereign. Though they have full voting rights, by custom this is not exercised except in matters of law. The Lord Justice of Common Chamber and Lord Chief Justice are Lords Justices; however, they do not usually sit in the Court of Counsellours.

Chamber Justices

The Chamber Courts, being the Court of King's Chamber and the Court of Common Chamber, have a total of thirteen justices. This includes two lords justices—the Lord Justice of Common Chamber and the Lord Chief Justice—as well as five and six puisne justices in the Common Chamber and King's Chamber respectively. All of the puisne justices are titled the Hon. Mr. Justice A. B. whereas the lords justices are titled the Rt Hon. Lord Justice A. B.

All chamber justices are Serjeants at Law (servientes ad legem), and are customarily knighted as Knights Companion of the Order of the Mantle and Tippet, the tippet being a term used to refer to the liripipe of a hood. They are also made Doctors of Chamber Law, not to be confused with Doctors of Civil Law, for practitioners of canon law.

The dress of a chamber justice, as they are known, is shewn on the right. On festal occasions and red-letter days, all justices wear scarlet robes (row 1), lined in fur. The fur for the lords justices are of ermine, whereas miniver is used for puisne justices. With the scarlet robe is worn the scarf, hood and mantle. A black silk girdle is worn around the waist. A detachable wing collar is worn with white bands as well as a powdered full-bottomed wig. Gloves and lace cuffs are also worn and the black cap is carried. Court dress is worn underneath the robes.

For normal sitting days, the justices wear scarlet robes lined in silk in summer and dark violet robes in the winter. The silk is silk velvet for the Lords Justices and silk taffeta for puisne justices. Traditionally it is of a mid-grey colour; however, lighter grey is increasingly popular, an innovation credited to Mr. Justice Rewhard.

In 1983 the festal robes replaced the violet robes in winter for purposes of economy; however, in 2003 the return to historical practice was recommended to all justices by both the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellour, as it was found that wearing the scarlet robes all year wore them out quicker.

Court of Eyre

See also: Courts of Great Nortend § Court of Eyre

The puisne justices when on circuit or eyre wear for normal sittings days a simplified or more informal version of the robes worn (row 3). The same robes are worn with a casting-hood instead of the full hood. The casting-hood is a hood thrown by the liripipe behind the body, giving the effect of a sash. Justices wear with this 'undress' a short bench wig. Court dress is worn underneath the robes.

Addressing judges

Main article: Forms of address in Great Nortend § Judiciary