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Elucidation to Table VII. Jurisdiction Table
Elucidation to Table VII. Jurisdiction Table. 3. Scotch Scales

(b) Session Bill Chamber

Of the several scales of jurisdiction included in the judicial establishment of Scotland those in which the Bill Chamber constitutes one of the stages differ from the English scales of jurisdiction in this, viz. that in an English scale the suit never travels from a lower to a higher stage unless conveyed [...?] by Appeal: whereas in these[?] Scottish scales though[?] in the manner represented in the Table it is conveyed upward, by Appeal, it also feeds its way into the same superordinate justicatory without Appeal, and of course. If the decision given in the Bill Chamber be not appealed from, the suit in its natural and shortest course, goes without any appeal upwards into the Lower House, then down to one/an[?] [...?] House then up again into the Lower House: if it be appealed from, it still takes the same course, unless thrown out, it is terminated, as may be, either out[?] from the Bill Chamber, or from the Lower House, it still may be by a decision of the Lower House. The above [...?] takes the same course

(a) Scales of jurisdiction

What concerns the proceedings in the Bill Chamber is taken from [...?] Form of Process etc 8[?] Edinburgh [?] and other Bills System of Forms of Deeds[?] 8[?] Edinburgh 1804 Vol. VI.

(a) (being Scottish) unless when otherwise mentioned,

The information contained in this division of the Table is taken from Erskines Principles of the Law of Scotland, 8vo Edinburgh, 1791. 7th Edition. B.i. Title 2,3,4,5,6.

/The difference is real in this one case it goes without argument, in the other case for the purpose of argument, carrying with it of course the delay vexation and expense attached to argument./
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  • Title: [Elucidations to Table VII. Jurisdiction Table]
    Description: Elucidations to Table VII. Jurisdiction Table. 3. Scotch Scales

    (c) Sheriff Depute's Substitutes Court

    The fact that when a suit is instituted in the judicatory of a Sheriff Deputye's, substitute, appeal his and is frequently presented to the judicatory of the principal, the Sheriff Depute, is taken from Mr. Fergusson's pamphlet intitled Observations upon the proposed Reform etc.[?] Edinburgh 1807, p. 89: in Erskine's Principles no mention of it is to be found.

    (d) Justitiary Court

    In these instances the Appeal to the Justitiary Court is given by Lord Hardwicke's Constable[?] Jurisdiction Act 20 G.2.c.43: in which by [...?] the decision of the Justiciary Court is declared to be " final". Though in this scale the stage constituted by the House of Lords is wanting, it is here [...?], in respect of the contrast it forms with all the other Scottish Scales.

    Here is a mass of causes [...?] with the whole field of criminal law except cases inferring loss of life or dismembration and with the whole field of civil law without any exception withdrawn altogether out of the cognizance of the House of Lords: This [...?] [...?] judicatory having controul over all decisions of the Court of Session, and not having any such controul over any decisions of the Judicatory Court, thus it is that in process of time, especially in so far as it is spun out in the form of jurisprudential law, the rule of action may on any and every head be split into these rules repugnant to each other.
  • Title: [25 Dec r 1807 Table VII. Jurisdiction]
    Description: 25 Dec r 1807

    Table VII. Jurisdiction Table VII

    Notes

    '.II. Stages of Appeal, how many?

    Subordinate Topics.

    1. In point of fact, in English and Scottish judication respectively, how far, in the several states of jurisdiction, the real number of stages coincides with the apparent: viz. in what instances is it greater?

    2. Herein[?] if disguised stages of Appeal. In English Equity, procedure, for example. Report by a subordinate Judge (and[?] Master[?]) and Exceptions thereunto, argued before the supreme Judge: the Chancellor or the Master of the Rolls. So in Scottish procedure, in the Court of Session, vibrations between the Bill Chamber, and the two Houses, Inner and Outer. *?

    3. In point of utility, what are general principles in the proper number of stages of Appeal? See Shapes of injustice

    4 By what particular circumstances, topographical or logical (logical, resulting from the place of the cause in the field of judicature) are indications afforded for the diminution or augmentation of the number of these stages?

    5. In point of fact, Comparative multitude of intermediate stages in Scottish judicature in comparison of English and Irish; no regard being had, in the case of the English, to the cases most frequently exemplified in practice.

    6. In point of utility, how far it is desirable, that the number of stages, through which the suit is capable of being made to pass should rest on the arbitrary will of the Plaintiff or his Attorney, to be exercised either at the outset of the cause (ex. gr, by commencing[?] it either by Original, (which throws out the Exchequer Chamber) or by Bill, which leaves the Exchequer Chamber in) or at any intermediate period[?]: ex. gr. in Chancery by setting the cause down for hearing either before the Chancellor or the Master of the Rolls?

    N.B. Analogous to this in criminale is the practice, which in capital cases, gives a power of pardon to the prosecutor, by leaving it at his option to ground[?] the indictment on a Statute subjecting the offence to capital punishment, or on a Statute subjecting it to a punishment less than capital, or on the Common Law.
  • Title: [1 May 1807 B3 9 (3)]
    Description: 1 May 1807

    B3 9

    (3)

    Letter V

    VIII. Appeal list mutilated

    II. Finance supply

    In the three years in question, sent out of the Court of Session the supreme Court of original jurisdiction within Scotland, viz: to the House of Lords, Appeals 75, as above: out of the four English Courts on the same level Appeals under the name of Appeals, viz. to the House of Lords as above, 6: to d o under the name of Writs of Error, 125 more, together to the House of Lords, 131: add from the Common Pleas to the King's Bench in its appellate capacity 550; from the King's Bench (in its original capacity) to the one sort of Exchequer Chamber, 1,253; from the Court of Exchequer to the other sort of Exchequer Chamber, 1: total to the three intermediate Courts of Review 1,810: add those to the House of Lords as above 131; grand total 1941:

    ratio of the number of appeals sent out of the English Westminster Hall Courts to d o sent out of the Scottish Court of Session at Edinburgh, as 1941 to 74: being between the ratio of 25 to 1 and that of 26 to 1.