Court of Common Pleas (Ireland)
The Court of Common Pleas was one of the principal courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror image of the equivalent court in England. It was one of the four courts of justice that gave the Four Courts building in Dublin its name.
History
According to Elrington Ball[1] the Irish Court of Common Pleas, which was known in its early years as the Common Bench or simply the Bench, was fully operational by 1276, with a Chief Justice (the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, as distinct from the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, who was the head of the Irish Court of King's Bench). He had two (occasionally three) justices to assist him. Traditionally its workload was less heavy than that of the Court of King's Bench, and its judges had the reputation, which was probably unjustified, for being less learned than those of the other courts of common law; they were also more likely to be Irish-born, and some of them spoke Irish[2]
Along with the Irish Court of Exchequer, it moved for a time to Carlow in the fourteenth century, due to the disturbed political conditions in Dublin; but the judges, finding that Carlow was also suffering from political unrest, quickly returned to Dublin.
Abolition
Under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877, the Court of Common Pleas was merged into the new High Court of Justice in Ireland; the Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas retained his old rank. After the first decade of its existence it was decided that the High Court could be made more efficient by merging the Common Pleas and Queen's Bench Divisions, and the term Common Pleas fell into disuse.
References
Sources
- Commissioners of Inquiry into Courts of Justice in Ireland (1819). Fifth report (Court of Common Pleas) with appendix. Sessional papers. Vol.12 5. Retrieved 10 September 2016.