JUDGE (OF., Fr. juqe, from Lat. juder, judge, from /us, law + dieere, to say). One who finds a judgment ; especially a presiding magistrate in a court of justice. The proceedings of courts of jus tice may he: (a) to maintain the order of judi cial procedure and make provision for the execu tion of judgments; (b) to find 'and interpret the legal rule or rules applicable to each ease: (c) to determine what the facts in the case are, or at least what facts shall be taken to be proved.
While all these different functions frequently are discharged by a single authority. they fre quently are separated. Representatives of the people, not otherwise connected with the adminis tration of justice, are frequently charged with the decision of questions of fact, and sometimes with the decision of questions both of fact and of law. This last separation was regularly made in the Greek democracies, in the Roman Pepublie, and in the early German tribes. A magistrate who was not simply a judicial of fiver, but who also had duties of general ad ministration. including. in some instances. mili tary duties—an archon or prator or prince or hundredman—presided over the adminis tration of justice, but judgment was ren dered by representatives of the people—by 'di kasts' or ',indices.' or (among the Germans) by all the freemen. Contrary to our modern usage, the term judge' was not regularly applied to the presiding magistrate, but to the representatives of the people who actually found the judgment. Among the Germans it was frequently applied to the 'wise men' or 'law-speakers' who suggested the judgment which the folk-moot approved or rejected. The term judge was not applied to the
presiding magistrate by the Romans until, in the Imperial period, he had.become judge of the law and the facts. The term began to he applied to the presiding official by the Germans when he began (in the Frankish Empire) to obtain a con siderable degree of control over the findings of the popular court. The relatively modern usage of describing the presiding magistrate as judge even when, as in English criminal procedure. he has no control over the judgment, is connected with the change which has separated judicial from general administration.
With the establishment of a separate and in dependent judiciary, placed beyond the reach of governmental interference, it has been found practicable, in all countries except those of the English law, to intrust to the judges the power of decision on the facts as well as on the law in civil cases. in criminal cases, however, the sys tem of popular judgment has not only main tained itself in English law, but, after disappear ing for centuries. has been reestablished on the Continent of Europe. So recent, however, has been the introduction of the jury system in Con tinental procedure that the inquisitorial tradi tions of the intermediate period are still strong, and the judge. to English eyes, seems to combine judicial functions with those of a public prose cutor. Compare COURT: MAGISTRATE.