COMMERCIAL COURT, in England, a court presided over by a single judge of the king's bench division, for the trial, as expeditiously as may be, of commercial cases. By the Rules of the Supreme Court, Order xviii. a (made in Nov. 1893), a plain tiff was allowed under certain circumstances to dispense with pleadings altogether.
Out of this order there grew the commercial court. It is not a distinct court or division or branch of the High Court, and is not regulated by any special rules of court made by the rule com mittee. It originated in a notice issued by the judges of the queen's bench division, in Feb. 1895, the provisions contained in which represent only "a practice agreed on by the judges, who have the right to deal by convention among themselves with this mode of disposing of the business in their courts" (per Lord Esher in Barry v. Peruvian Corporation, 1896, 1 Q.B. p. 209) .
The scheme is only applicable to cases in which there is some single issue of law or fact, or the case depends on the construction of some contract or,other instrument or section of an act of par liament, and such issue or question is either agreed upon by the parties or at once ascertainable by the judge.