There are three stages of judicial business in the Court of Session, viz. the Bill Chamber, and which last, both divisions are alike denominated. Causes originating in the Court of Ses sion as ordinary actions, do not pass through the Bill Chamber. This last is the first stage of the process of review of the judgments of inferior courts; and in this stage it is determined whether these should be admitted into the supreme court, or remitted, as pro perly decided, to the inferior judicatory. The Bill Chamber, besides, is the jurisdiction for all summary and urgent process, as interdicts against illegal pro ceedings, relief from illegal execution, imprisonment, &c. and, having no vacation, is always accessible. The judges, with the exception of the Lord President and Lord Justice Clerk, officiate in rotation during vacation; and one judge, the junior of all, does the duty in time of session. Nearly all decisions in the Bill-Chamber are subject to the review of the Inner House.
Formerly the Inner-House judges sat by rotation in the Outer-House as Lords Ordinary. After several experiments, permanent Lords Ordinary were esta blished; and by the stat. of last session, 6. Geo. IV. chap. 120. these are put upon their present footing, viz. the seven junior Lords of Session sit in the Outer House as permanent Lords Ordinary; subject to be occasionally called into the Inner-House whenever the -whole fifteen judges consult on any cases in which one division requires the opinion of the other. The seven permanent Lords Ordinary prepare and judge in causes in the Outer-House, both such as originate in the Court of Session, and such as have passed the Bill Chamber; and the Lord Ordinary on the bills has the special duty of judging in rescissory actions or reduc tions, and some other cases which are remitted from the Inner-House for discussion in the Outer.
The Inner-House of each division (by the same act) consists of a president and three ordinary judges. The Lord President presides in the first division and the Lord Justice Clerk in the second. The judgments pronounced in the Outer-House are subject to the re view of the Inner. In consequence of a more mature and perfect preparation of the cause under the pre scriptions of the new act, there is no longer any form for submitting his own judgment to the review of the Lord Ordinary; but the losing party presents a note to the Inner-House (instead of the old form of reclaiming petition,) reciting the judgment of which alteration is craved, and prints along with it, the proceedings held before the Lord Ordinary, called the record, including cases if they have been ordered, so that nothing in fact or law is laid before the court of review that was not in the view of the Lord Ordinary. The Inner-House, in both its divisions, is entirely occupied with this its province of review, with the exception of cases of a certain kind which are not competent in the Outer House, and come at once into the Inner, such as peti tions and summary complaints in bankruptcies, com plaints in electiOns, appointments of judicial factors, curatores bonis, &c.
The judgments of the Inner-House are subject to the review of the House of Lords, as coming by the Union in the place of the Scottish parliament. In this
final review the same salutary principle is rigidly ob served, namely, that the court of the last resort shall judge on the same pleadings in law as were before the court below.
The principal advantages intended by regu lations, not only in the Court of Session but in the in ferior judicatories, to all of which they apply, are complete production in the outset of documents found ed on; greater accuracy, precision and brevity of pleading; and a complete separation of the facts of the case from the law; and, as the latter only is to be made the subject of discussion in the House of Lords, much diminution of that excess and complication of appeals, which had become so great a grievance to the judges in that high tribunal. The parties are forced to bring out their whole cause, in fact, and law, in their origi nal pleadings, when the record is closed, and no farther facts or pleas allowed, except of matters newly come to knowledge, when the payment of a suitable part of the previous expenses must be made before these are ad mitted. This will render legal proceedings not only more precise and brief, but more respectable than when parties in a law-suit watched each other, and let their strength out by degrees; when cunning was mistaken for legal skill, and slovenliness and inaccu racy rendered disputes inextricable, and delay intoler able.
In all causes not expressly allotted to the Jury Court, of which in the sequel, where the facts are either not admitted or not ordered to be ascertained by evidence taken on a commission, and chiefly in dis tant places, the Lord Ordinary may, if he sees proper, send the whole facts, or such part of them as he may think necessary in the form of particular issues to be tried by a jury in the Jury Court. The verdict of the jury finally settles the facts, so that no question of fact tried by jury can now be the subject of discussion by way of review either in the Inner-House or House of Lords. No facts can in any case be now discussed in the court of the last resort, inasmuch as the judgment on the facts by the Court of Session, when the matter has not been tried by jury, has the force of a verdict. "When the verdict of the jury is returned, or the facts otherwise disposed of, the Lord Ordinary decides the cause, or takes it to report, as it is called, that is, to be decided at once by the Inner-House. If he decides it himself, the party dissatisfied carries it to the Inner House by a reclaiming note, and prints the pleadings, called the record, which has been made up before the Lord Ordinary. On this record the court decide, after hearing counsel, either without or with farther written pleadings, in the form of concise cases, as they think fit. By these forms it is expected that written plead ings, which rendered the course of law cumbrous and tardy, will be very essentially abridged, and the Scot tish bar be called to a greatly increased exercise of the more strictly forensic talent of viva voce statement.