Quarter Sessions

Quarter Sessions

The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the United Kingdom and other countries in the former British Empire. They generally sat in the seat of each county and county borough.

Quarter Sessions were abolished in England and Wales in 1972, when the Courts Act 1971 replaced them together with the Courts of Assize (Assizes) with a single permanent Crown Court of England and Wales. They were abolished in Scotland in 1975 and replaced with District Courts and subsequently Justice of the Peace Courts.

The Quarter Sessions were named for the four annual meetings they held in England and Wales from 1388. These days were later settled as Epiphany, Easter, Midsummer (The Translation of St. Thomas)[1] and Michaelmas sessions.

Contents

Reputation

Bentley notes in English Criminal Justice in the Nineteenth Century that "the reputation of such courts remained consistently bad throughout the century" due to failure by chairmen to take proper note of evidence, display of open bias against prisoners, and the severity of sentences compared to the Assizes. Chairmen of county sessions did not have to be legally qualified.

Jurisdiction

The Quarter Sessions generally heard crimes that could not be tried summarily by the justices of the peace without a jury in petty sessions, which were sent up by the process of indictment to be heard in Quarter Sessions.

The Quarter Sessions did not have jurisdiction to hear the most serious crimes, most notably those subject to capital punishment or later life imprisonment. These crimes were sent for trial at the periodic Assizes.

Staff

The Quarter Sessions in each county were made up of two or more justice of the peace, presided over by a chairman, who sat with a jury. County boroughs entitled to their own Quarter Sessions had a single Recorder instead of a bench of justices.

Every Quarter Sessions had a clerk called the clerk of the peace. For county Quarter Sessions, this person was appointed by the custos rotulorum of the county – the Justice of the Peace for the county charged with custody of its rolls and records. There was a large fee income for the clerk, and he was usually a friend or relative of the custos. The clerk rarely discharged the duties of the office himself, but appointed a solicitor to act as his deputy in return for a share of the fees. After 1852, payment by salary was gradually brought in instead of fees.

In some counties there were multiple Quarter Sessions, quite apart from the urban areas: for example, Yorkshire had its North Riding, West Riding, and East Riding; whilst Northamptonshire's Soke of Peterborough was administered separately. These divisions were carried on to the administrative counties that county councils covered.

Civil jurisdiction

The Quarter Sessions also had some limited civil jurisdiction, and until the Local Government Act 1888 created elected county councils, also had important administrative functions in their respective counties.

Much of the court's administrative business was delegated to committees of magistrates, who had specific responsibilities. Most of these administrative functions were transferred to county councils when they were established in 1888.

These functions included:

  • Repair of roads and bridges
  • Highway diversions
  • Construction and maintenance of county buildings
  • Administration of the county gaol (jails)
  • Supervision of public and private lunatic asylums
  • Supervision of petty sessions
  • Licensing of public houses
  • Supervision of the English Poor Laws (pre-1834)
  • The county militia
  • The police
  • Setting county rates

Changes

The following Quarter Sessions were abolished by the Justices of the Peace Act 1949 on 1 October 1951.

It also saw a separate Quarter Sessions set up for the Isle of Wight.

Scotland

Quarter Sessions were established in Scotland by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland in 1661 (cap. 38), which directed justices of the peace to meet together in each county on the first Tuesday of March, May and August, and the last Tuesday of October.[2] Often Quarter Sessions were delayed, in which case they met as General Sessions.[3] Quarter Sessions were abolished alongside other local courts by the District Courts (Scotland) Act 1975, which moved justices of the peace to sitting in a uniform series of District Courts, since replaced by Justice of the Peace Courts.

Quarter Session Courts in Ireland

The Dublin Quarter Sessions Court had cognizance of all crimes committed within the city's boundaries except treason. There were Quarter Sessions Courts elsewhere in Ireland in Cork, Limerick, Derry, Kilkenny, Waterford, Galway, Carrickfergus, Kinsale, and Youghal. The recorder of the court sat alone. The Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 abolished many city and borough courts, but Dublin, Galway and Carrickfergus retained their courts of Quarter Sessions.

In 1867, the Attorney-General for Ireland, Hedges Eyre Chatterton, issued guidelines to regulate which cases ought to be tried at tried at assizes rather than quarter sessions: treason, murder, treason felony, rape, perjury, assault with intent to murder, party processions, election riots, and all offences of a political or insurrectionary character.[4]

Quarter Sessions were abolished in the Irish Free State under the Courts of Justice Act 1924.[5] Their jurisdiction (together with that of the Assizes and the County Court) was largely transferred to the Circuit Court.

Courts of Quarter Sessions in Upper Canada

A Court of Quarter Sessions was held four times a year in each district to oversee the administration of the district and deal with legal cases in the Province of Upper Canada (later Province of Canada West after 1841). It was created in 1788 and remained in effect until 1849 when local governments and courts were assigned to county governments to replace the district system created in the 1780s.

List of Quarter Session courts in Upper Canada and later in Canada West:

Other colonial administrations

Quarter Sessions were also held in the colony of New South Wales. They also existed in North American colonies, sometimes known as Courts of General Sessions, and were held in Pennsylvania until the constitution of that Commonwealth was rewritten in 1968 and the courts' jurisdiction was placed under the pre-existing Courts of Common Pleas in each county, and in New York until a similar reform. In India and Malaysia, the Quarter Sessions have evolved into permanent Sessions courts.

References

  1. ^ Sir John Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History (3rd edition) 1990 Butterworths. ISBN 0-406-53101-3 page 30. The Translation of St. Thomas falls on July 3.
  2. ^ http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Court_of_Quarter_Sessions#Scotland
  3. ^ http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/justice.asp
  4. ^ McEldowney, John F.; O'Higgins, Paul (1990). The common law tradition: essays in Irish legal history. Irish Academic Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780716523970. 
  5. ^ http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1924/en/act/pub/0010/sec0051.html

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Quarter sessions — Quarter Quar ter (kw[aum]r t[ e]r), n. [F. quartier, L. quartarius a fourth part, fr. quartus the fourth. See {Quart}.] 1. One of four equal parts into which anything is divided, or is regarded as divided; a fourth part or portion; as, a quarter… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • quarter sessions — quarter .sessions n [plural] an English law court that was held in the past once every three months …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • quarter sessions — ► PLURAL NOUN historical ▪ (in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) a court of limited criminal and civil jurisdiction and of appeal, usually held quarterly …   English terms dictionary

  • quarter sessions — n. Historical a local court, as in England or the U.S., that sits quarterly; specif., an English local court having civil and criminal jurisdiction, except in cases involving the most serious crimes …   English World dictionary

  • quarter sessions — Law. 1. an English court of general criminal jurisdiction for crimes less than homicide, held quarterly. 2. (in the U.S.) a court with limited criminal jurisdiction, having local administrative powers in some states. [1570 80] * * * ▪ law… …   Universalium

  • Quarter sessions — Session Ses sion, n. [L. sessio, fr. sedere, sessum, to sit: cf. F. session. See {Sit}.] 1. The act of sitting, or the state of being seated. [Archaic] [1913 Webster] So much his ascension into heaven and his session at the right hand of God do… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • quarter sessions — /ˈkwɔtə sɛʃənz/ (say kwawtuh seshuhnz) noun → court of quarter sessions …  

  • Quarter Sessions Act 1837 — The Quarter Sessions Act 1837 (1 2 Vict. c. 4) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom, signed into law on December 23, 1837. In order to remove doubts which existed on the subject, it enacted that juries could be summoned to attend… …   Wikipedia

  • quarter sessions of the peace — See court of quarter sessions of the peace …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • quarter-sessions — quarˈter sessions plural noun A court formerly held quarterly by justices of the peace (superseded in England and Wales in 1972 by crown courts) • • • Main Entry: ↑quarter …   Useful english dictionary

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