Britain: An official handbook > 1959

GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
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each county and for each borough which has its own commission of the peace, by
the Lord Chancellor, who is advised as to a county by the Lord Lieutenant1 with
the assistance of an advisory committee, and as to boroughs by separate advisory
committees. There are also a few persons who are authorised by statute to act as
justices, by virtue of holding some other public office, e.g., mayors of county and
non-county boroughs and chairmen of county councils.
In central London, most of the courts consist of a paid metropolitan magistrate
sitting alone; some of the larger towns also have stipendiary (paid) magistrates.
Juvenile Courts in England and Wales are specially constituted magistrates’
courts which deal with young people under 17 years of age who are charged with
any offence except homicide, or are brought before the courts as being in need of
care or protection or beyond control, or as persistent truants. Juvenile courts also
deal with most applications for the adoption of children.
Outside the London magistrates’ courts area, the justices for each petty sessional
division elect from their number a panel of justices specially qualified to deal with
juvenile cases. The panel for the London area is appointed by the Home Secretary.
A juvenile court consists of not more than three justices drawn from the panel
and must, except in special circumstances, include a man and a woman. A juvenile
court must sit either in a different room or building from that in which other courts
are sitting, or on a different day. Only persons within certain specified categories are
admitted and only limited publicity is allowed.
Domestic Proceedings are also tried by not more than three justices, of whom one
should be a man and one a woman. The hearing of domestic proceedings is
separated from other business and, as in juvenile courts, the public is excluded.
Courts of Quarter Sessions
There are two different kinds of quarter sessions—county sessions and borough
sessions; both are normally held four times a year, although, when necessary,
additional sittings may be held.
Each of the 63 courts of county quarter sessions is presided over by a legally
qualified chairman or deputy chairman, who may or may not draw a salary, sitting
with a number of the magistrates of the county. In London, Lancashire and
Middlesex, where the courts have continuous sittings, the chairman and deputy
chairman normally preside alone. In the 93 boroughs, which hold separate quarter
sessions, most of the courts, which do not sit continuously, are presided over by a
Recorder (usually a part-time judicial officer), who is a salaried barrister, as sole
judge. Trial by jury applies at both borough and county sessions.
The jurisdiction of quarter sessions covers all but the most serious indictable
offences, but the courts are debarred from trying any crime that carries the death
sentence or (subject to certain exceptions) imprisonment for life.
Assizes
Courts of assize are branches of the High Court of Justice. They are held in the
county towns and in certain big cities three times a year, a Queen’s Bench judge
or a Commissioner of Assize (who may be a barrister commissioned to act as a
judge) presiding. The assize judges work on circuits covering England and Wales,
and travel from one county town to another in the course of their duties. They can
try any indictable offence committed in the county.
1 See footnote p. 42.