OF ACTIONS.
I. Hitherto of the rights arising from the relation of per sons, and of those arising from things, the two first objects of law. Actions are its third object, whereby persons make their rights effectual. An action may be defined, demand regularly made and insisted in before the judge competent, for the retaining or recovering of a right.
2. The supreme power, which has the right of enacting laws, falls naturally to have the right of erecting courts and appointing judges, who may apply these laws to particular eases. But in Scotland, this right has been from our ear liest times intrusted with the crown, as having the execu tive power of the state. In our supreme courts of session and exchequer, not only process but execution of diligence runs in the name .of the sovereign, notwithstanding which these courts have a proper jurisdiction, seeing all their ne cessary writs, both of process and execution, issue under their own direction.
3. Jurisdiction is a power conferred upon a judge or ma gistrate, to take cognizance of and decide causes accord ing to law, and to carry his sentences into execution. That tract of ground or district within which a judge has the right of jurisdiction, is called his territory ; and every act of jurisdiction exercised by a judge beyond his territory, either by pronouncing sentence,or carrying it into execution,is null, 4. All judges must at their admission swear, 1. The oath of allegiance, and subscribe the assurance, 1693, c. 6 —2. The oath of abjuration was first imposed 6 An. c. 14, and has been since continued by several British statutes. Lastly, The oath de fideli administratione.
5. By the treaty of union 1707, c. 7, art. 3, the parlia ments of Scotland and England are united into one parlia ment of Great Britain. From this period, the British House of Peers, as coming in place of the Scots parliament, is be come our court of the last resort, to which appeals lie from the supreme courts of Scotland.
6. The Court of Session, or college of justice, the su preme civil tribunal of Scotland, was originally formed in the reign of James V. but has since undergone several im portant changes. It at present consists of fifteen judges, who are vested with an universal civil jurisdiction, and who are distinguished into three classes ; one principally occupied in the preparation of causes, called the Outer House judges ; and two others for the final determination of them, called the First and Second Divisions. Though the
jurisdiction of the session be properly limited to civil caus es, the judges have always sustained themselves as compe tent to the crime of falsehood, either from its necessary con nection with civil right, or perhaps because the SUI11111U1 y proceedings of the court of justiciary were not well adapted to the tedious proofs frequently brought in improbation, when pursued in the indirect manner. This court, besides its original jurisdiction, has a power of review over inferior courts, by the processes of advocation, suspension, and le duction.
7. Five lords of session, as commissioners of justiciary, the justice-general, and justice-clerk, form the justiciary court, or supreme criminal court of Scotland. The justice general, if present, is president of the court, and in his ab sence the jusuce•cleik. By the late jurisdiction act, 20 Geo. II. circuit Courts are to be held twice in the year in place of once as formerly, with a power to his majesty to add to or alter the places or districts at which these courts are to be held, and to appoint their times of meeting. One judge may by this statute, proceed to business in the ab sence of his colleague.
8. The Scots court of exchequer, as the king's chamber lain court, judged in all questions of the revenue. By 6 An. c. 26, (passed in pursuance of 1707, c. 7, art. 19,) that court is abolished, and a new court erected, consisting of the lord high treasurer of Great Britain, and a chief baron, with four other barons of exchequer. This court has a privative jut isdiction conferred upon it as to the duties of customs, excise, or other revenues appertaining to the king or prince of Scotland, and as to all honours and estates that may accrue to the crown ; in which matters they are to judge by the forms of proceeding used in the English court of exchequer, under the following limitations ; that no debt due to the crown shall affect the debtor's real estate in any other manner than such estate may be affected by the laws of Scotland, and that the validity of the crown's titles to any honours or lands shall continue to be tried by the court of session.