Constitution
The court was a statutory court established under an act of the British Parliament. The court had virtually unlimited powers to deal with criminal offences. The court was constituted by a Deputy Judge Advocate, or as the office came to be more commonly called, “Judge-Advocate”. He sat with six military officers to constitute the tribunal. The first deputy judge advocate was David Collins.
In its early days, the court was convened when required. It was convened following a precept issued by the governor under his hand and seal. There were therefore no regular sittings during the early years of the settlement, and it met only whenever the governor summoned it.
Read more about this topic: Court Of Criminal Jurisdiction
Famous quotes containing the word constitution:
“What we learn for the sake of knowing, we hold; what we learn for the sake of accomplishing some ulterior end, we forget as soon as that end has been gained. This, too, is automatic action in the constitution of the mind itself, and it is fortunate and merciful that it is so, for otherwise our minds would be soon only rubbish-rooms.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)
“The Federal Constitution has stood the test of more than a hundred years in supplying the powers that have been needed to make the Central Government as strong as it ought to be, and with this movement toward uniform legislation and agreements between the States I do not see why the Constitution may not serve our people always.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“I never did ask more, nor ever was willing to accept less, than for all the States, and the people thereof, to take and hold their places, and their rights, in the Union, under the Constitution of the United States. For this alone have I felt authorized to struggle; and I seek neither more nor less now.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)