High Court of Admiralty Act 1859

The High Court of Admiralty Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict., c. 6) was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act was an important step in moving the ancient Admiralty Court of England and Wales towards its modern constitution. It was also an important step in the abolition of Doctors' Commons.

Background

English Admiralty law is based not on the common law but on civil law, though with some common law and statutory developments. As such, it was historically administered, not by the practitioners in the common law courts but by the practitioners in the ecclesiastical courts, who were organised in the Doctors' Commons and called "advocates" and "proctors," rather than barristers and solicitors. This demarcation was widely held to be restrictive and by the middle of the nineteenth century there was pressure for reform, culminating in the Court of Probate Act 1857 which started the process of abolition of Doctors' Commons which was completed in 1865.^[1]

The Act and its effect

The Act received its royal assent on 8 August 1859.^[1]

The long title of the Act was:^[1]

An act to enable Serjeants, Barristers-at-law, Attorneys and Solicitors to practice in the High Court of Admiralty.

By allowing the common lawyers to practise in the Admiralty court, the civil lawyers were deprived of one of their few remaining privileges, thus hastening the demise of their separate constitution.^[1]

References

1 2 3 4 Squibb (1977) p.104-105

Bibliography

[Anon.] (1911) "High Court Of Admiralty", Encyclopaedia Britannica
Squibb, G. D. (1977). Doctors' Commons. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-825339-7.

United Kingdom legislation

Pre-Parliamentary legislation	List of English statutes Charter of Liberties Magna Carta

Acts of Parliament by states preceding the Kingdom of Great Britain	Acts of the Parliament of England to 1483 1485–1601 1603–1641 Interregnum (1642–1660) 1660–1699 1700–1706 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland

Acts of Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain	1707–1719 1720–1739 1740–1759 1760–1779 1780–1800

Acts of the Parliament of Ireland	to 1700 1701–1800

Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	1801–1819 1820–1839 1840–1859 1860–1879 1880–1899 1900–1919 1920–1939 1940–1959 1960–1979 1980–1999 2000 to date Halsbury's Statutes Legislation.gov.uk Short titles

Church of England measures	List Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919

Legislation of devolved institutions	Acts of the Scottish Parliament List Acts and Measures of the National Assembly for Wales List Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly List Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland List Orders in Council for Northern Ireland List

Orders-in-Council	Order in Council

Secondary legislation	United Kingdom Statutory Instruments Scottish Statutory Instruments Acts of Sederunt Acts of Adjournal

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/4/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.