28 FEBRUARY 1857, Page 18

REARRANGEMENT OF THE LAW DEPART/1E3T. SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION.

London, 20th February 1867.

let. The Lord Chancellor (or Lord High Chancellor) for the time being to be also the Minister of Justice, and ex-officio President of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, but to have no jurisdiction or power in any Court of First Instance.

2d. The Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords to be transferred altogether to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and the said Committee to be the one universal Court of Final Appeal.

3d. The Court of Chancery (or of Equity) to consist of one Chancellor, Lord Chancellor, or Lord Chief Justice in Equity, (as proposed many years ago by Lord Brougham,) and four Vice-Chancellors or Judges in Equity.

The aloes of Lords-Justices of Appeal and Master of the Rolls to be discontinued.

4th. A new Court to be established, under the designation of the Court of Civil Law, consisting of one Chief Judge Chief Justice, or Lord Chief Justice, and such number of Judges, not exceeding four, as the Queen in Council may from time to time deem necessary.

(If any designations other than those above mentioned are considered more appropriate either for the new Court or for its component members, such more appropriate designations to be adopted accordingly.) The present Ecclesiastical Courts and Court of Admiralty to be abolished ; or rather, to merge in the new Court of Civil Law, their present powers and jurisdictions being transferred to that Court,

6th. The future powers, jurisdiction and procedure of the Court of Civil Law, in matters testamentary, matrimonial, ecclesiastical, maritime, and international, to be respectively defined ; but until duly defined accordingly, the whole of the present powers, &c., to be exercised by the new Court.

6th. Sittings in banco, analogous to those in the Common Law Courts, and with analogous powers, to be held, either separately by the five Judges of each of the two Courts of Equity and Civil Law, or by the ten Judges of the two Courts conjointly.

7th. All practitioners in the said two Courts, and in the three present Common-Law Courts of Queen* Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, to be entitled to practise in all /we Courts.

8th. Provision to be made for the abolition of the present Provincial, Diocesan, and Local Admiralty or Vice-Admiralty Courts; and for the establishment and regulation of such substitutes as may be respectively deemed expedient.

9th. The six superior (or senior) Judges of the above-mentioned Courts of First Instance in England, three of similar or analogous Courts in Scotland, and three in Ireland, to be always ex-officio members of the House of Lords. But no Judges whatever of any of the said Courts to be eligible to the Lower House of Parliament.

10th. The same twelve superior (or senior) Judges to be always ex-officio members also of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

P.S.-11th. If thought desirable, the present Courts of Bankruptcy said of Insolvent Debtors to be merged in one united Court,. under some appropriate designation; such new Court to consist of one Chief Judge and four other Judges, and to possess all jurisdiction and powers now possessed by the said Courts respectively.

12th. In that case, the said new Court to be placed on the some footing in all respects as the new Civil-Law Court, so far as relates to its Judges, to sittings in banco, and to practitioners. The powers of the Lord Mayor's Court in matters of debt to be transferred to the said new Court.

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