Acts of Sederunt

Acts of Sederunt, ordinances of the Court of Session or supreme civil court in Scotland, made originally under authority given by King James V. in 1532, and ratified by the Scots Act, 1540, chap. 93, whereby the judges are empowered to make such rules or ordinances as may be necessary for the regulation of legal procedure and the expediting of justice. In accordance with this authority, the court have passed a great number of Acts prescribing the forms of process in both superior and inferior courts, which, under certain penalties, must be complied with by litigants, although the court may, in extreme cases, dispense from the letter of the Act. The leading rules and forms of process are prescribed by statute, but many recent statutes give power to the court to make Acts of Sederunt which are generally laid before parliament. Thus, the rules in election petitions, the fees of law-agents and burgh registrars, the examination of law-agents, have been provided for in this way. The Report of the Scottish Judges to the House of Lords in 1810 shows that this power of regulation was formerly extended to legislation by the judges, but the only Act of Sederunt of this kind now in force, and which has not been ratified by parliament, is that of 1756, relating to removings of tenants. No legislative power is now claimed by the Scottish judges. There are many collections of Acts of Sederunt by Tait, Alexander, McLaren, Adam, and others.