COURT

in architecture, an open area surrounded by buildings or walls. There have been such courts from the earliest recorded times and in all civilizations. In medieval Europe the court was a characteristic adjunct of all major domestic buildings, as the cloister of a monastery, the ward of a castle, and the quadrangle of a college or hospital. Palaces often included a complex of courts. The Alhambra in Granada, Spain, built in the 13th and 14th centuries, has six, including the Court of the Lions and Court of the Myrtles, the most celebrated of all Muslim patios. In Tudor and Elizabethan England of the 16th century, the principal mansions frequently had a forecourt, with wings of the house projecting forward on either side. The larger houses in France were similarly planned; but by the late 17th century it became necessary to add a second courtyard at the rear for stables, coachhouses, and the like; and the forecourt became the court of honour (cour d'honneur). See also cortile. also called court of law a person or body of persons having judicial authority to hear and determine disputes in particular cases, civil, criminal, ecclesiastical, or military. The term court also denotes the chamber, hall, building, or other place where such judicial proceedings take place. (See also military law.) This article deals with the operations of the judicial branch of government. It explores some of the fundamental relationships of this branch with legislative and executive branches and analyzes the functions, the structure and organization, and, finally, the key personnel of courts, the judges. The approach is comparative, contrasting and comparing the systems of the two predominant legal traditions of the contemporary world: first, that of the common law, represented by England, the United States, Canada, Australia, and other nations deriving their legal systems from the English model; and, second, that of the civil law, as represented by nations of western Europe and Latin America and certain Asian and African nations that have modelled their legal systems on western European patterns. Reference is made to the legal institutions in the former Soviet Union and in eastern European nations. A separate section deals more specifically with judicial systems in Communist countries. also called Court Of Law, a person or body of persons having judicial authority to hear and determine disputes in particular cases, civil, criminal, ecclesiastical, or military. The term court also denotes the chamber, hall, building, or other place where such judicial proceedings take place. (See also military law.) The word court originally meant simply an enclosed place, and still does in the architectural sense. Judicial tribunals were originally enclosures where the judges sat, while counsel, attorneys, and the general public had to remain on the outside of a bar; hence, the expression called to the bar is used to apply to a lawyer newly qualified to practice. At first these enclosures were temporary structures in an open field; later, they became fixtures in a large room or hall, the courtroom. In Europe in the early Middle Ages the judicial functions were not yet separate from the legislative and administrative functions. The king or other ruler, together with his chief councillors, sat in a meeting hall for the exercise of all these functions, and so the household of the ruler was also called the court. Since all judicial authority was derived from the ruler, his presence was assumed in all the specialized courts. From the 12th century onward the increasing number of university-trained civilians and canonists created a recognized legal profession, and the rise of the legal profession also determined the gradual separation of judicial from administrative functions. English courts are divided by certain features which can be briefly indicated. A first distinction is between courts trying criminal cases and courts trying civil cases. A second distinction is made between the inferior courts, or courts of first instance, in which the first hearing of any judicial proceeding takes place, and the superior courts, or courts of appeal, in which the judgment of the first courts are brought under review. The court of appeal is the main appeal court, whose decision may be reviewed by the House of Lords in important points of law. The structure of court organization in the United States reflects the division of functions characteristic of the federal form of government; federal and state courts are roughly parallel in organization and jurisdiction. Each state has its own independent, comprehensive system of courts, capable as a whole of adjudicating almost every conceivable matter and subject. At the same time, there exists a system of federal courts, established to adjudicate distinctively federal questions and handle other cases not appropriately tried in state courts. The federal system of courts is a hierarchy of three levels. At the apex of the national judicial system is the Supreme Court of the United States, made up of nine judgesthe chief justice of the United States and eight associate justices. Their work is primarily to review decisions of state courts and lower federal courts on questions of federal law that are of national importance. The second level of the federal judiciary consists of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, one for each of 12 circuits (each circuit covering a definite geographic area) and one national court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, handling matters of patent, trademark, and copyright and such matters as internal-revenue claims and breach-of-contract claims. The work of each of the regional Courts of Appeals is mainly to review decisions of administrative agencies and to review judgments of the lower district courts. The district courts form the third level of the federal court system; there are 90 districts. The system within each state is roughly similar to that of the federal government, although most states have only a two-tiered rather than a three-tiered system. The highest state court, an appellate court, is referred to as the supreme court in most states. Then there are the trial courts of general jurisdiction. In some states, intermediate appellate courts have been established. In addition, there are numerous special and inferior courts of first instance with limited jurisdiction. These include probate courts, criminal courts, county courts, justices of the peace, small claims courts, and so forth. In contrast to the federal practice, the selection of state judges is often by popular election. Additional reading Overviews of legal institutions within specific countries include R.M. Jackson, The Machinery of Justice in England, 7th ed. (1977); Lewis Mayers, The American Legal System, rev. ed. (1964, reprinted 1981); Robert A. Carp and Ronald Stidham, Judicial Process in America, 2nd ed. (1993), from a political perspective; G. Leroy Certoma, The Italian Legal System (1985); and Harihar Prasad Dubey, A Short History of the Judicial Systems of India and Some Foreign Countries (1968). Works with a broader scope are Ren David and John E.C. Brierley, Major Legal Systems in the World Today, 3rd ed. (1985; originally published in French, 8th ed., 1982); Sybille Bedford, The Faces of Justice (1961), discussing how cases are handled in England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France; John Henry Merryman, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Western Europe and Latin America, 2nd ed. (1985), summarizing the principles and institutions in civil-law countries; and C.G. Weeramantry, Islamic Jurisprudence (1988), concentrating on Islamic issues. Karl Llewellyn, The Case Law System in America (1989; originally published in German, 1933), is a pre-World War II classic on the American legal system from a foreign perspective.Both James E. Bond, The Art of Judging (1987); and Steven J. Burton, Judging in Good Faith (1992), provide a philosophical approach to law judging. Joel Levin, How Judges Reason: The Logic of Adjudication (1992), explains the author's theory of judicial pluralism and criticizes other theories. Lawrence M. Solan, The Language of Judges (1993), offers a linguistic analysis of judicial language. Henry J. Abraham, The Judicial Process: An Introductory Analysis of the Courts of the United States, England, and France, 6th ed. (1993), is a classic text. Benjamin N. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process (1921, reissued 1991), is an explanation by a distinguished judge of how an appellate court reaches its decisions. Roscoe Pound, Organization of Courts (1940, reprinted 1979), gives a detailed treatment of U.S. court structure. W.R. Cornish, The Jury, rev. ed. (1971), is a comprehensive British essay on the jury, combining traditional learning with new empirical material. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Common Law (1881, reprinted 1991), is a classic treatment of the growth of law through judicial decisions.Discussions of politics and law include Jerome R. Corsi, Judicial Politics (1984), an introductory text; David Kairys (ed.), The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique, rev. ed. (1990), a compilation of essays; and Jerold L. Waltman and Kenneth M. Holland (eds.), The Political Role of Law Courts in Modern Democracies (1988), examining the United States, Australia, Canada, the former West Germany, England, France, Italy, Sweden, and Japan. Patricia Smith (ed.), Feminist Jurisprudence (1993), is a compilation of essays by leading scholars. Harry H. Wellington, Interpreting the Constitution: The Supreme Court and the Process of Adjudication (1990), is a liberal review of the Supreme Court that rejects original meaning by presenting the Constitution as a living document.