COURT LEET

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 328 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: COR-CRE

COURT LEET , an English petty criminal court for the punishment of small offences. It has been usual to make a distinction between court baron and court leet i as being separate courts, but in the early history of the court leet no such distinction
i The history of the word " leet " is very obscure. It appears in Anglo-French documents as lete and in Anglo-Latin as leta. Professor W. W. Skeat has connected it with Old English ldetan, to let, which is very doubtful, though this is the origin of the use of the word in such expressions as " two-" " three-way leet," a place where cross-roads meet. The New English Dictionary suggests a connexion with " lathe," a term which survives as a division of the county of Kent, containing several hundreds." This is of Old Norwegian origin, and seems to have meant " landed possessions." There is also another Old Norwegian leith, a court or judicial assembly, and modern Danish has laegd, a division of the country for military purposes. J. H. Round (Feudal England, p. lot) points out that the Suffolk hundred was divided for assessment into equal blocks called " leets" (see further F. W. Maitland, Select Pleas 'in Manorial Courts, Selden Soc. Publications I. lxxiii-lxxvi). " Leet " is also used, chiefly in Scotland, for a

list

of persons nominated for election to an office. This is, apparently, a shortened form of the French elite, elected.
can be

drawn

DRAWN

. At a very early time the lords of manors exercised or claimed certain jurisdictional franchises. Of these the most important was the " view. of frankpledge " and its attendant police jurisdiction: Some time in the later middle ages the court baron when exercising these powers gained the name of leet, and, later, of " court leet." The quo warranto proceedings of Edward I. established a

sharp

distinction between the court baron, exercising strictly manorial rights, and' the court leet, depending for its jurisdiction upon royal franchise. The court leet was a court of record, and its duty was not only to view the pledges but to present by jury all crimes that might happen within the jurisdiction, and punish the same. The steward of the court acted as judge, presiding wholly in a judicial character, the ministerial acts being executed by the bailiff. The court leet began to decline in the 14th century, being superseded by the more modern courts of the justices, but in many cases courts leet were kept up until nearly the middle of the 19th century. Indeed, it cannot be said that they are now actually extinct, as many still survive for formal purposes, and by s. 40 of the Sheriffs Act 1887 they are expressly kept up.
COURT-MARTIAL, a court for the trial of offences against military or naval discipline, or for the administration of martial law. In England courts-martial have inherited part of the jurisdiction of the old Curia militaris, or court of the

chivalry

CHIVALRY (O. Fr. chevalerie, from Late Lat. caballerius)

, in which a single marshal and at one time the high constable proceeded " according to the customs and usages of that court, and, in cases omitted according to the civil law, secundum legem armorum" (Coke, 4 Ins. 17). The modern form of the courts was adopted by ordinance in the time of Charles I., when English soldiers were studying the " articles and military laws " of Gustavus Adolphus and the Dutch military code of Arnheim; it is first recognized by statute in the first Mutiny Act of 1689. The Mutiny Act (with various extensions and amendments) and the statutory articles of war continued to be the sources of military law which courts-martial administered until 1879 when they were codified in the Army Discipline and Regulation Act 1879, which was, in turn, superseded by the Army Act 1881. This act is re-enacted annually by the Army (Annual) Act. The constitution of courts-martial, their procedure, &c., are dealt with under MILITARY LAW.
Naval Courts-Martial.The administration of the barbarous naval law of England was long entrusted to the discretion of commanders acting under instructions from the lord high admiral, who was supreme over both the royal and merchant navy. It was the leaders of the Long Parliament who first secured something like a regular tribunal by passing in 1645 an ordinance and articles concerning martial law for the government of the navy. Under this ordinance Blake, Monk and Penn issued instructions for the holding general and ship courts-martial with written records, the one for captains and commanders, the other for subordinate officers and men. Of the latter the mate, gunner and boatswain were members, but the admirals reserved a control over the more serious sentences. Under an act of 1661 the high admiral again received power to issue commissions for holding courts-martiala power which continues to be exercised by the board of admiralty. During the 18th century, under the auspices of Anson, the jurisdiction was greatly extended, and the Consolidation Act of 1749 was passed in which the penalty of death occurs as frequently as the curses in the commination service. The Naval Articles of War have always been statutory, and the whole system may now be said to rest on the Naval Discipline Act 1866, as amended by the act of 1884. The navy has its courts of inquiry for the confidential investigation of charges " derogatory to the character of an officer and a

gentleman

GENTLEMAN (from Lat. gentilis, " belonging to a race or gens," and " man "; Fr. gentilhomme, Span. gentil hombre, Ital. gentil huomo, in its
original
- ORIGINAL
and strict signification, a term denoting a man of good family, the Lat. generosus (its invariable transl

." Under the act of 1866 a court-. martial must consist of from five to nine officers of a certain rank, and must be held publicly on board of one of H.M. ships of war, and where at least two such ships are together. The rank of the president depends on that of the prisoner. A judge-advocate attends, and the procedure resembles that in military courts, except that the prisoner is not asked to plead, and the sentence, if not one of death, does not require the confirmationof the

commander

COMMANDER

-in-

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

abroad or of the admiralty at home. The court has a large and useful power of finding the prisoner guilty of a less serious offence than that charged, which might well be imitated in the ordinary criminal courts. The death sentence is always carried out by hanging at the yard-arm; Admiral Byng, however, was shot in 1757. The board of admiralty have, under the Naval Discipline Acts, a general power of suspending, annulling, and modifying sentences which are not

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

. The jurisdiction extends to all persons belonging to the navy, to land forces and other passengers on board, ship-wrecked crews, spies, persons borne on the books of H.M. ships in commission, and civilians on board who endeavour to seduce others from allegiance. The definition of the jurisdiction by locality includes harbours, havens or creeks, lakes or rivers, in or out of the United Kingdom; all places within the jurisdiction of the admiralty; all places on shore out of the United Kingdom; the dockyards, barracks, hospitals, &c., of the service wherever situated; all places on shore in or out of the United Kingdom for all offences punishable under the Articles of War except those specified in section 38 of the Naval Discipline Act 186o, which are punishable by ordinary law. The Royal Marines, while borne on the books of H.M. ships, are subject to the Naval Discipline Acts, and, by an order in council, 1882, when they are embarked on board ship for service on shore; otherwise they are under the Army Acts. By s. 179, sub.-sec. 7, of the Army Act, in the application of the act to the Royal Marines the admiralty is substituted for military authorities.
AuTHORITIES.Simmons, On the Constitution and Practice of Courts-Martial; Clode, Military and Martial Law; Stephens, Gifford and Smith,

Manual

MANUAL

, of Naval Law and Court-Martial Procedure. The earlier writers on courts-martial are Adye (1796), M'Arthur (1813), Maltby (1813, Boston), James (182o), D'Aguilar (1843), and Hough, Precedents in Military Law (1855).

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