justices of the peace

justices of the peace. The forerunners of the justices of the peace were the conservators of the peace, first appointed in the reign of Richard I. In the 13th cent. conservators of the peace, consisting of knights and gentry of the county, served on the commissions of assize, oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery and were also given other peacekeeping duties, extended from time to time by legislation until, in the reign of Edward III, they were given powers to punish offenders and in 1344 to hear and determine criminal cases. A new function was entrusted to the conservators when, after the Black Death had decimated the population, the statutes of Labourers provided for the fixing of wages by the justices. In 1361 it was provided by statute that in every English county there should be ‘one lord and with him three or four of the most worthy in the county with some learned in the law’ to ‘keep the peace, to arrest and imprison offenders, to imprison or take surety of suspected persons and to hear and determine felonies and trespasses done in the county’, and in 1363 a further statute provided for the holding of sessions four times a year (the quarter sessions). They were now the ‘justices of the peace’ and were and still are appointed by the crown to the commission of peace for the county.

From that time onwards, the legislature increasingly extended the role of the justices of the peace. Their judicial function remained a vital part of the administration of criminal justice, though the calibre of the justices was variable—they were at first noblemen or country gentry, later prosperous burgesses or clergy, and until 1906 were subject to a property qualification. Literature provides us with numerous examples of justices, many of whom were scarcely admirable in performing their duties, especially when dealing with the poor and indigent.

The justices of the peace have been called the maids of all work of the English legal system. In addition to their judicial and peace-keeping duties, they were used to administer the poor laws and, through the quarter sessions, to oversee the whole of local government. These duties are no longer performed by the justices, but they retain a role in the keeping of the peace—they issue warrants in certain circumstances—and although quarter sessions were abolished in 1971, the magistrates' courts remain a vital part of the administration of criminal justice in England and Wales, trying most criminal cases. They also hear and decide applications for the licensing of premises for the sale of alcohol or for gambling.

Maureen Mulholland