COURT LEET, an English petty criminal court for the punishment of small offences. It has been usual to make a dis tinction between court baron (q.v.) and court leet as being separate courts, but in the early history of the court leet no such distinction can be drawn. At a very early time the lords of manors exercised or claimed certain jurisdictional franchise. Of these the most important was the "view of frankpledge" and its at tendant 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 committed within the jurisdic tion, 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 The court leet began to decline in the 14th century, being superseded by the more modern courts of the justices, but in many cases courts leet were kept up until nearly the middle of the 19th century.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. 4o of the Sheriffs Act, 1887, they are expressly kept up.