JUDICATURE ACTS, in English law, a number of statutes, dating from 1873, simplify ing procedure and consolidating numerous courts into one Supreme Court of judicature. Demurrers were abolished, and important changes made in the rules as to the right of trial by jury. The acts in question are 36 and 37 Vict., c. 66, and 38 and 39 Vict., c. 77, with various amendments. A 12th amending act was passed in 1899. By the first of these acts the Court of Queen's (or King's) Bench, the Court of Chancery, the Court of Exchequer, the Court of Common Pleas, the High Court of Admiralty, the Court of Probate and the Court of Divorce and Matrimony were consolidated into one Supreme Court of Judicature, consist ing of a High Court of Justice and a Court of Appeal. By these acts laws and equity were administered by the same court, and equitable defenses allowed in legal actions. Another ob ject of these acts was to simplify pleading and practice, and this was done by abolishing the old forms of action. The former arbitrary modes
of pleading were supplanted by concise state ments of claim or defense. The House of Lords under these acts remains the highest court of appeal. In case a point of law is raised by the pleadings, it is left for settlement until the trial or until after the issues of fact have been disposed of. It is claimed by some that the abolition of demurrers and settling questions of law after the beginning of the action has led to great laxity and inaccuracy in pleading. Upon notice without order, either party has a right to trial by in actions of false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, slander, libel, seduction or breach of promise of marriage. By the act of 40 and 41 Vict., c. 57, a Supreme Court of Judicature was established in Ireland in 1878, and by this act and later ones, a substantially similar system to that of England is now in effect.