Court of King's Bench (England)

Court Of King's Bench (England)

The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a female monarch), formally known as The Court of the King Before the King Himself, was an English court of common law in the English legal system. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century from the curia regis, initially following the monarch on his travels, the King's Bench finally joined the Court of Common Pleas and Exchequer of Pleas in Westminster Hall in 1318, making its last travels in 1421. As one of the two principal common law courts along with the Common Pleas, the King's Bench's jurisdiction and caseload was significantly challenged by the rise of the Court of Chancery and equitable doctrines in the 15th and 16th centuries. To recover, the King's Bench undertook a scheme of revolutionary reform, creating less expensive, faster and more versatile types of pleading in the form of bills as opposed to the more traditional writs. Although not immediately stemming the tide, in the long term it helped the King's Bench not only recover but increase its workload. While there was a steep decline in business from 1460 to 1540, as the new reforms began to take effect the King's Bench's business was significantly boosted; between 1560 and 1640, it rose tenfold.

While good for the King's Bench, the Common Pleas became suspicious of the new developments, as legal fictions such as the Bill of Middlesex damaged its own business. Fighting against the King's Bench in a reactionary and increasingly conservative way, an equilibrium was eventually reached in the 17th century. Reaching an acceptable medium with the Common Pleas and Exchequer of Pleas proved to be the downfall of all three courts; with several courts of near-identical jurisdiction, there was little need for separate bodies, and the superior courts of Westminster were merged by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873 into a single High Court of Justice. The King's Bench thus ceased to exist, except as the King's Bench (now Queen's Bench) Division of the High Court.

During its existence the King's Bench's jurisdiction initially covered a wide range of criminal matters, something significantly reduced later on, along with any business not claimed by the other courts, and any cases which concerned the monarch. It also acted as a court of appeal for the Exchequer of Pleas and Common Pleas, although it was not a court of last resort and required Parliament to sign off on its decisions. The creation of the Court of Exchequer Chamber in 1585 created a court from which King's Bench decisions could be appealed to, and with the expansion of the Exchequer Chamber's jurisdiction in 1830 the King's Bench ceased to be an appellate court. Thanks to the Bill of Westminster and other legal fictions, the King's Bench gained much of the Common Pleas's jurisdiction, although the Common Pleas remained the sole place where real property claims could be brought. The King's Bench was staffed by one Chief Justice, now the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, and a variable number of puisne justices; normally three, there were five serving when the King's Bench was dissolved. Those who chose not to retire became Justices of the High Court on the King's Bench's dissolution.