Court of Session

Court of Session, the supreme court of civil jurisdiction in Scotland, was constituted in 1532. The credit of its origin is generally ascribed to the Duke of Albany, who when regent had submitted a scheme for the establishment of such a court to Pope Clement VII.; and the details of the scheme were carried out by Archbishop Dunbar of Glasgow, who was then Lord Chancellor. Its constitution was principally modelled on that of the parliament of Paris, of which body the Duke of Albany was at that time a member. French influence was clearly seen in many features of the Court of Session, and to this day may be recognised in the names of its officers—president, king's advocate, advocates, dean of faculty, procurators, &c. The judges of the Court of Session originally consisted of the Lord Chancellor, Lord President, and fourteen ordinary judges or 'senators of the College of Justice,' together with an indefinite number of extraordinary lords, who represented the peerage. At first, half the number of the judges were laymen appointed by the king, and half ecclesiastics appointed by the church. In 1584 all clergymen were declared disqualified from holding judicial office, but so late as 1664 the Archbishop of Glasgow was made an extraordinary lord. The extraordinary lords themselves were abolished in 1723, and the Court of Session then consisted of the Lord President and fourteen ordinary judges, the office of Lord Chancellor having been abolished at the Union. The Court of Session first sat in the Tolbooth or prison of Edinburgh, but in 1639 was accommodated in the buildings of the Parliament House, which was then erected. It sat as one chamber, one of the ordinary lords going by rotation weekly to sit in what was called the Outer House. Here all cases, with certain exceptions, were in the first place heard and decided by the Lord Ordinary, but an appeal lay from his judgment to the whole court. Fresh changes were made in 1808 and 1810; and in 1830 the total number of judges was reduced to thirteen, the two divisions each consisting of four, including the Lord President and Lord Justice-clerk, whilst the number of the Outer House judges remained as before: this is the present constitution of the court. In 1830, moreover, the office of president was united with that of Lord Justice-general or president of the High Court of Justiciary (q.v.), the supreme criminal court in Scotland. Prior to 1887 five of the judges were appointed Lords Com- missioners of Justiciary, but by the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act of that year all the judges are now members of that court. Since the Union in 1707, several courts which had a separate existence, and in some cases an exclusive jurisdiction, have been merged in the Court of Session. These are the Court or Commission of Teinds (though this still sits nominally as a separate court), in which questions relating to the law of teinds or church tithes were decided; the High Court of Admiralty, dealing with maritime cases; the Court of Exchequer, having jurisdiction in all matters relating to crown rents, customs, &c.; and the Commissary Court of Edinburgh, which had to do with wills. The judges of the Court of Session are appointed by the crown from the bar, and hold their offices ad vitam aut culpam. See APPEAL, JUSTICIARY (COURT OF).