Britain: An official handbook > 1956

GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
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recommendation of 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 authorized 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, the courts are presided over by paid metropolitan magis¬
trates ; some of the larger towns also have stipendiary magistrates.
Juvenile Courts in England and Wales are specially constituted courts of summary
jurisdiction which deal with children and young persons (i.e. persons under 17
years of age) charged with any offence except homicide. They also hear applications
in respect of children and young persons in need of care or protection or beyond
control, truancy cases and the majority of applications for adoption.
Outside the Metropolitan (London) magistrates’ courts area the justices for each
petty sessional division elect from their numbers a panel of justices specially
qualified to deal with juvenile cases. Within the Metropolitan area the panel 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 Session
There are two different kinds of Quarter Sessions—county sessions and borough
sessions; both are normally held four times a year.
County Quarter Sessions consist of the magistrates of the county assembled
together under a legally qualified chairman. In those boroughs, which hold separate
Quarter Sessions, the courts are presided over by a Recorder, who is a salaried
barrister, as sole judge. Trial by jury applies at both borough and county sessions.
The jurisdiction of Quarter Sessions covers the less serious indictable offences;
the courts are debarred, for example, from trying any crime that carries the death
sentence or (subject to certain exceptions) imprisonment for life.
Assizes
The 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 ti-avel from one county towm to another in the course of their duties. They can
try any indictable offence committed in the county.
At the winter and summer Assizes, civil business as well as criminal may be
taken, but except in a few large towns the autumn Assize is confined to criminal cases.
The Central Criminal Court
The Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey acts as the Court of Assize for the
criminal business of London, Middlesex and parts of the Home Counties. The
1 The office of Lord Lieutenant in the county was first created in the sixteenth century.
Its holder was chief among the county justices and commander of the county militia.