THE TURNING POINT

The work of the Judicature Commission recast the courts of law in a shape which endured substantially unaltered for almost a hundred years. From the various common law, equity and civilian courts, which were collectively the ‘superior courts’, was created the Supreme Court of Judicature (SCJ), whose judges possessed the jurisdiction of all the old courts and the power to administer their doctrines and remedies in the same action; in addition the procedure in the divisions of the new high court was to be largely governed by a common set of rules. Although the provisions for appeals, already complicated by the retention of divisional courts, were further elaborated when political considerations led to the preservation of the House of Lords, the SCJ was an excellent foundation for a durable structure of civil justice.

A foundation, however, is all it was. What should have been the first stage in a complete reconstruction remained the only one, ‘a terminus rather than a staging post’. The other stages should have been the re-ordering of justice in the provinces and of the relationship between the high court and the inferior courts, in particular the county courts. This had been outside the remit of the original commissioners and only Ayrton had disturbed their impressive unanimity by urging his colleagues to consider whether all actions should be started in the county courts.