Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1933
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1933 c. 41 |
| Year | 1933 |
Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act, 1933.
(23 & 24 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 41.
An Act to amend the law of Scotland relating to the Court of Session and procedure therein, to the appointment of Officers in the said Court and the High Court of Justiciary, to criminal jury trials and to the Sheriffs and procedure in the Sheriff Court, and with regard to solicitors' fees; and for purposes connected therewith.
[28th July 1933]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
Court of Session .
1 Abolition of trials of Judges.
(1) It shall not be necessary for the judges of the Court of Session to make trial or examination of the qualifications of a person nominated and appointed to be a judge of the said Court and the provisions of the Court of Session Act 1723 and of the Acts of the Parliament of Scotland therein referred to shall, in so far as they relate to such trial and examination, cease to have effect.
(2) This section shall come into operation on the passing of this Act.
2 Provision for extra division of Inner House.
(1) The Lord President shall have power from time to time to direct any three judges to sit as an additional division of the Inner House for the purpose of hearing and disposing of causes pending before the Inner House, and the senior judge present shall preside, and shall sign any judgment or interlocutor pronounced by that division. Any reference in any Act or in any Act of Sederunt to a division of the Inner House of the Court shall be construed as including a reference to any such additional division.
(2) This section shall come into operation on the passing of this Act.
3 Abolition of Bill Chamber.
(1) The Bill Chamber shall cease to exist and any cause which according to the law and practice existing immediately prior to the commencement of this Act required to be brought in the Bill Chamber may be brought in the Outer House and any reference in any Act or in any Act of Sederunt to the Lord Ordinary on the Bills or to the Junior Lord Ordinary shall be construed as a reference to a judge sitting in the Outer House, provided that, in any provision of an Act or an Act of Sederunt as to the exercise of jurisdiction in vacation, any reference to the Lord Ordinary on the Bills shall be construed as a reference to the judge acting as vacation judge in pursuance of section four of this Act.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing subsection a solicitor shall have, as regards any cause which according to the law and practice existing immediately prior to the commencement of this Act required to be brought in the Bill Chamber, the like rights of audience and appearance as if the said subsection had not been enacted.
4 Sessions of the Court.
(1) The ordinary sessions of the Court shall in every year be as follows:—
from the Tuesday preceding the tenth day of January to the Saturday preceding the thirty-first day of March; from the Tuesday preceding the tenth day of May to the Saturday preceding the twenty-third day of July; and from the Tuesday preceding the fifteenth day of October to the Saturday preceding the twenty-fourth day of December.
(2) It shall be lawful for the Court, if at any time they shall be of opinion that the business before the Court so requires, by Act of Sederunt to extend any ordinary session of the Court for such period as may be deemed necessary: Provided always that it shall be competent for any division or for any Lord Ordinary to sit during vacation, notwithstanding that no Act of Sederunt under this subsection may have been made, and at such sitting to hear and determine any cause pending before such division or Lord Ordinary.
(3) During vacation the judges of the Court, other than the Lord President and the Lord Justice Clerk, shall in rotation act as vacation judge, and it shall be competent for such vacation judge, at any time during vacation, and whether sitting in Court or in chambers, to do anything delegated to him by the Inner House, or to do anything which the Lord Ordinary officiating on the Bills was empowered by the law and practice existing immediately prior to the commencement of this Act to do either at the Courts appointed to be held by him or at any other time during vacation or recess, or to do any other thing which he may, by Act of Sederunt, be authorised to do.
(4) Section ninety-three of the Act of 1868, in so far as it requires the Lord Ordinary officiating on the Bills to sit in Court on the fifth day after each box-day in vacation or recess, shall cease to have effect.
(5) Without prejudice to the provisions of section eight of the Act of 1868 relating to sittings on Monday—
(a ) the Court may continue on the ensuing Monday the taking of any proof proceeding on a Friday or Saturday and not finished on that day, and shall, unless it is impracticable, do so, where the Court is of opinion that undue expense or delay can thereby be avoided, and
(b ) the Court shall, where it is necessary in order to avoid interference with the regular sittings of any judge of the Outer House, hold on a Monday any hearing in the Inner House at which the presence of such judge is required.
(6) Section nine of the Court of Session Act, 1830 , shall cease to have effect in so far as it requires causes to be tried by jury at sittings of the Court to be held during vacation or during the Christmas recess.
5 Right of party to choose Lord Ordinary and Division abolished.
5. The right of a party to a cause, including an appeal, to mark the same to a specified Lord Ordinary or Division, or otherwise to select the Lord Ordinary or Division by whom the cause shall be heard, shall cease. Every cause in the Inner House shall be heard and determined by such Division thereof, and (save as in section ten of this Act otherwise expressly provided) every cause in the Outer House shall be heard and determined by such Lord Ordinary as may be determined in accordance with this Act or any Act of Sederunt made in pursuance thereof.
6 Form of proceedings in the Court of Session.
(1) Save as hereinafter provided all causes initiated in the Court shall be initiated in the Outer House either by summons or by petition, which summons or petition shall be in such form as may be prescribed, and any enactment in force at the commencement of this Act prescribing or regulating the form of any summons or petition in the Court shall cease to have effect.
(2) Save as hereinafter provided there shall be annexed to every summons, and included in every petition, a statement in the form of an articulate condescendence of the allegations in fact which form the grounds of the pursuer's claim, or on which the prayer of the petition is based, and there shall also be annexed to every summons and to every petition for suspension, suspension and interdict, or suspension and liberation, a note of the pursuer's or petitioner's pleas-in-law. The defences to every such summons and the answers to every such petition shall be in the form of articulate answers to the aforesaid statement, and there shall be annexed to such defences and to the answers to every petition for suspension, suspension and interdict, or suspension and liberation, a note of the defender's or respondent's pleas-in-law. Where a counterclaim is made by the defender or where it is otherwise necessary, a statement of facts founded on by the defender shall be annexed to the defences.
(3) The foregoing subsections shall not apply to Exchequer causes or to special cases under section sixty-three of the Court of Session Act, 1868 , and, notwithstanding anything in the foregoing subsections, such special cases and the following petitions, viz.:—
(a ) petitions and complaints;
(b ) petitions in respect of failure to perform a statutory duty;
(c ) petitions in respect of failure to perform any public or official duty which would according to the law and practice existing immediately prior to the commencement of this Act require to be presented in the Inner House;
(d ) petitions under the Acts relating to solicitors or notaries public (other than petitions for admission as a solicitor);
(e ) petitions incidental to a cause already before the Inner House;
(f ) petitions under the Evidence by Commission Act, 1843 or under the Foreign Tribunals Evidence Act, 1856 or under the Evidence by Commission Act, 1859 or under the British Law Ascertainment Act, 1859 or under any similar enactment;
(g ) petitions to the Court invoking the exercise of the nobile officium;
shall be presented in the Inner House.
(4) Notwithstanding anything in the immediately preceding subsection it shall be competent to the Division or to the Lord Ordinary before whom any cause in which interim interdict has been granted, is depending, to deal, on enrolment of the cause, with any breach of such interim interdict without the presentation of a petition and complaint.
(5) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this section, no condescendence or note of pleas-in-law...
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