Justices, LORDS. Since the Norman Conquest it has been the occasional practice in England for the sovereign to nominate one or more persons to exercise the chief powers of government during his temporary absence from the kingdom. At first this duty was imposed, principally although not perhaps exclusively, upon the justiciar. But when, after the death of Hubert de Burgh, the functions of the justiciar were gradually distributed and his office itself was practically abolished, custodes regni or 'lords justices' were appointed to govern the realm during the sovereign's absence. The English sovereigns from Edward VI. to James II. were never, while actually reigning, absent from England at all; and William III. in the early years of his reign invariably left Queen Mary to discharge the duties of viceroy when he went to the Continent. But after the death of Mary lords justices appear to have been appointed under the great seal, on the occasion of the king's absence, five times between 1695 and 1699. The names of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor were usually placed at the head of these commissions. The Act of Settlement (12 and 13 Will. III., chap. 2) provided 'that no person who shall hereafter come to the crown shall go out of England, Scotland, or Ireland without consent of parliament;' but this clause was repealed by 1 Geo. I. chap. 51; and George I. during five of his absences from England (1719, 1720, 1723, 1725, 1727) left lords justices to represent him. Similar appointments were made by George II. after the death of Queen Caroline; and George IV. on his visit to Hanover in 1821 delegated his authority to nineteen guardians, of whom the Duke of York, heir-presumptive, was one. During the reign of Victoria the propriety of an appointment of lords justices was twice considered—on occasion of the royal visit to France, and in 1845, when the Queen was preparing to visit Germany; and on the latter occasion an interesting discussion took place in the House of Lords. The view taken by Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst was that, although the great seal could not be used out of the realm, mandates of the sovereign given by sign-manual out of the realm were valid, and that it was 'in the breast of the sovereign,' on going abroad, to appoint representatives or not, as might be deemed for the public good. This debate practically settled the question, and the nomination of lords justices has fallen into desuetude. These appointments were usually made by letters-patent under the great seal, but in one or two cases parliamentary confirmation of the powers conferred by the king's authority was obtained.
The power to create peers has only once been delegated—by Charles I. in favour of Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Glamorgan, in 1644.
Lords justices have sometimes been appointed to carry on the government of Ireland in place of a vice-roy : but in modern times this has only been done during occasional absences of the lord-lieutenant, or in the interval between the demise of one lord-lieutenant and the appointment of his successor. These lords justices have usually been the Primate, the Lord Chancellor, and the Commander of the Forces.
LORDS JUSTICES OF THE COURT OF APPEAL.—In 1811 it was found that the work devolving on Lord Chancellor Eldon in the Court of Chancery, and at the same time as Supreme Judge of Appeal in the House of Lords, was too severe for his strength. After considerable discussion it was decided to appoint a new judge, under the title of vice-chancellor, to perform part of his duties ; and in 1851 Lord John Russell introduced into the House of Commons a bill for the reform of the Court of Chancery. This statute (14 and 15 Vict. chap. 83) transferred the entire jurisdiction of the Lord Chancellor as head of the Court of Chancery to a new tribunal called the Court of Appeal in Chancery. The members of this court were the Lord Chancellor himself, and two other judges who were required to be at the date of their appointment barristers of not less than fifteen years' standing, took rank and precedence next after the Lord Chief-baron of the Exchequer, and were styled Lords Justices of the Court of Appeal in Chancery. Shortly afterwards the lords justices were 'entrusted with the care and custody of lunatics by warrant under the Queen's sign-mannal.' The Judicature Acts established a new Court of Appeal (see APPEAL), in which there are four ex officio members—the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief-justice, the Master of the Rolls, and the President of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division—and five ordinary members, who are called 'lords justices' after their predecessors in the old Court of Appeal in Chancery. The lords justices are now merely members of the Court of Appeal, and have no original jurisdiction in the Chancery Division. Their jurisdiction in lunacy, however, remains substantially unaltered ; and by section 51 of the Judicature Act of 1873 they were appointed additional judges of the High Court of Justice, so that they might exercise it more effectively, by the aid of all that original jurisdiction in Chancery which was formerly auxiliary to the jurisdiction in lunacy. The lords justices occasionally sit as additional judges of the High Court of Justice. When acting in this capacity they are bound by the judgment of a Divisional Court, even although they may disapprove of it, and would have reversed it in the Court of Appeal.