King's Bench. The Court of King's or Queen's bench (so called because the King used formerly to sit there in person (though the judges determined the causes), the style of the Court still being coram ipso rege, or coram ipsa regina) was a Court of record, and the Supreme Court of Common Law in the kingdom, consisting of a chief justice and four puisne justices, who were by their office the sovereign conservators of the peace and supreme coroners of the land.
This court, which was the remnant of the aula regia, was not, nor could be, from the very nature and constitution of it, fixed to any certain place, but might follow the King's person wherever he went, for which reason all process issuing out of this Court in the King's name was returnable 'ubicunque fuerimus in Anglia.' For some centuries, and until the opening of the Royal Courts, the court usually sat at Westminster, being an ancient palace of the Crown, but might remove with the King as he thought proper to command.
The jurisdiction of the court was very high. It kept all inferior jurisdictions within the bounds of their authority, and might either, by writ of certiorari, remove their proceedings to be determined here, or, by writ of prohibition, prohibit their progress below. It superintended all civil operations in the kingdom. (See quo warranto.) By writ of mandamus it commanded magistrates to do what their duty required in every case where there was no other specific remedy. By writ of habeas corpus it protected the liberty of the subject by speedy and summary interposition. It took cognizance both of criminal and civil causes: the former in what is called the Crown side or Crown office, the letter in the plea side of the Court. On the Crown side it took cognizance of all criminal causes, from high treason down to the most trivial misdemeanour or breach of the peace, and into it also indictments from all inferior Courts might be removed by writ of certiorari. See CERTIORARI; HABEAS CORPUS; MANDAMUS; QUO WARRANTO.
On the plea side it exercised a general jurisdiction over all actions between subject and subject, with the exception of real actions and suits concerning the revenue. Its jurisdiction in civil action was formerly limited to trespass or injuries said to have been committed vi et armis, but by means of fictitious proceedings called Bill of Middlesex and Latitat (which see) it usurped jurisdiction over all personal actions; direct jurisdiction in all such actions being given by 2 Wm. 4, c. 39, which abolished these fictitious proceedings. Error lay from this Court to the Exchequer Chamber.
The jurisdiction of this court, under the name of the Queen's Bench, was assigned, by s. 34 of the (English) Jud. Act, 1873, to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, and by
Order in Council under s. 32 of the same Act the Common Pleas and Exchequer Divisions were in February, 1881, merged in the same Queen's Bench Division--since the death of Queen Victoria styled the King's Bench Division. The Lord Chief Justice of England, besides being an ex-officio judge of the Court of Appeal (English) (Jud. Act, 1875, s. 4), is President of the Division (English) (Jud. Act, 1873, s. 31). See now Judicature Act, 1925, ss. 2-5, 9-17, 18, 19; by the (English) Judicature Act, 1935, the number of judges in the K.B.D. has been increased to nineteen.
View Judgments Citing this Phrase View Acts Citing this Phrase