CIRCUITS, in a legal sense, are the periodical progresses of the judges of the superior courts of common law through the sev eral counties of a given region for the purpose of administer ing civil and criminal justice. These modern circuits in progresses have taken the place of the eyres or itinera of the ancient system. The word circuit is also applied to the rotative sittings of judges of county courts in the various towns of the districts over which they preside.
It is provided by s. 7o of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act, 1925, that judges of the king's bench division of the high court and every judge of the probate division (if the state of business of that division permit) together with such com missioners of assize as may be appointed by letters patent shall be judges of assize. By virtue of their commission all judges and com missioners of assize are entitled within the districts fixed by their commission (including the counties palatine of Lancaster and Dur ham) to exercise all the powers of civil or criminal jurisdiction capable of being exercised by the high court, including (s. 71) the trial of revenue causes or proceedings. It is further provided by the act (s. 77) that : If at any time it appears to the lord chief jus tice that there is no business, or no substantial amount of business, to be transacted at the assizes about to be held at any particular place on a circuit, he may, with the concurrence of the lord chan cellor, direct that assizes shall not on that occasion be held at such place.
The general regulation of circuits throughout England and Wales, in modern times, was originally provided for by s. 23 of the Judicature Act, 1875 (now replaced by s. 7 o of the Supreme Court of Judicature [Consolidation] Act, 1925). By this section power was conferred on the Crown by order in council to make regula tions respecting circuits, including the discontinuance of any cir cuit, and the appointment of the places at which assizes are to be held on any circuit. Under this power, an order in council, dated Feb. 5, 1876, was made reconstructing and remodelling the circuit system throughout England and Wales. By virtue of this order the then existing circuits were discontinued and were replaced by fresh circuits. These, after various mutations, are now settled as fol lows : the northern, the north-eastern (taken from the northern), the midland, the south-eastern, the Oxford, the western, and the north Wales (with Chester) and south Wales (divisional) circuits. The delimitation of these circuits together with the names of the towns throughout England and Wales at which assizes are held are set out in some 14 orders in council, all of which are printed in Statutory Rules and Orders. Birmingham was first constituted a circuit town in the year 1884 and, by arrangement, the work there became the joint property of the midland and Oxford circuits. There are alternative assize towns in the following circuits, viz., on the western circuit, Salisbury and Devizes for Wiltshire and Wells and Taunton for Somerset ; on the south-eastern, Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds for Suffolk; on the north Wales circuit, Welshpool and Newtown for Montgomery; and in the south Wales (division), Cardiff and Swansea for Glamorgan.
The approximate dates for the holding of circuit assizes are: winter (about the middle of January), summer (about the middle of May), and autumn (about the middle of October). Spring assizes for both civil and criminal business are held in April and May in two circuits only, viz., at Manchester and Liverpool on the northern, and at Leeds on the north-eastern. In the past consider able difficulty was experienced in coping with assize work in the provinces and at the same time maintaining the efficiency of the common law sittings in London. With the object of obviating this as far as possible it has been arranged that certain of the common law judges shall remain in London during the whole of the circuits, and the others until their respective commission days which are generally arranged to fall on varying dates.
Counsel are not expected to practise on a circuit other than that to which they have attached themselves, unless they receive a spe cial retainer. They are then said to "go special," and the fee in such a case is ioo guineas for a king's counsel and so guineas for a junior. In such cases it is customary to employ in the action one member of the circuit on which the counsel has come special. Cer tain rules have been drawn up by the bar council for regulating the practice as to retainers on circuit : (1) A special retainer must be given for a particular assize (a circuit retainer will not, however, make it compulsory upon counsel retained to go the circuit, but will give the right to counsel's services should he attend the assize and the case be entered for trial) ; (2) if the venue is changed to another place on the same circuit, a fresh retainer is not required ; (3) if the action is not tried at the assize for which the retainer is given, the retainer must be renewed for every subsequent assize until the action is disposed of, unless a brief has been delivered; (4) a retainer may be given for a future assize, without a retainer for an intervening assize, unless notice of trial is given for such intervening assize. There are also various regulations enforced by the discipline of the circuit bar mess.
In Scotland the judges of the supreme criminal court, or high court of justiciary, form also three separate circuit courts, consist ing of two judges each ; and the country, with the exception of the Lothians, is divided into corresponding districts, called respectively the northern, western and southern circuits. On the northern cir cuit, courts are held at Inverness, Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen; on the western, at Glasgow, Stirling and Inveraray; and on the southern, at Dumfries, Jedburgh and Ayr. (W. W. P.) United States.—In the Federal judiciary in the United States there are nine circuit courts of appeals. Each has appellate juris diction over a number of the Federal district courts, and each has from three to six judges, appointed by the President. Judges of the district courts are competent to sit on this bench. A justice of the i Supreme Court formerly visited each circuit once a year but this practice has substantially been abandoned. These courts have appellate jurisdiction over most of the matters determined by the district courts, but certain matters are taken directly to the Supreme Court. The courts of appeals, which sit at the places indi cated, are composed of the following districts : First circuit at Bos ton, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Porto Rico; Second circuit at New York, Vermont, Connecticut, northern, southern, eastern and western New York; Third circuit at Philadelphia, New Jersey, eastern, middle and western Pennsyl vania and Delaware ; Fourth circuit at Richmond, Maryland, northern and southern West Virginia, eastern and western Vir ginia, eastern and western North Carolina and eastern and western South Carolina ; Fifth circuit at Atlanta, with alternate sittings at Montgomery, Ft. Worth and New Orleans, northern, southern and middle Georgia, northern and southern Florida, northern, middle and southern Alabama, northern and southern Mississippi, eastern and western Louisiana, northern, southern, eastern and western Texas and the Canal Zone ; Sixth circuit at Cincinnati, northern and southern Ohio, eastern and western Michigan, eastern and western Kentucky, and eastern, middle and western Tennessee; Seventh circuit at Chicago, Indiana, northern, southern and east ern Illinois, and eastern and western Wisconsin ; Eighth circuit at St. Louis, with alternate sittings at Denver, Cheyenne and St. Paul; Minnesota, northern and southern Iowa, eastern and western Missouri, eastern and western Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, eastern, western and north ern Oklahoma, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico ; Ninth circuit at San Francisco, with alternate sittings at Seattle and Portland ; northern and southern California, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, east ern and western Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii.
In several of the States, such as Illinois and Massachusetts, the system of circuits prevails, with the judges sitting in succession in the various counties of the circuit. In a few States the term district Judge is applied to such officials.
N. Callender's American Courts, Their Organization and Procedure (1927).