Circuit (judicial district)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In law, a circuit is an appellate judicial district used in the court systems of several nations.
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[edit] Origins
For most of Western history, the majority of people were illiterate; competent lawyers and judges were often in short supply. As England emerged from the Dark Ages, King Henry II instituted custom of having judges ride around the countryside ("ride circuit") each year to hear appeals (rather than forcing everyone to bring their appeals to London). (See Assize of Clarendon). Thus, the term "circuit court" is derived from the practice of having judges ride around the countryside each year on pre-set paths to hear cases.
[edit] United States
In the United States, circuit courts were first established in the British Thirteen Colonies. Under the original Judiciary Act of 1789 and subsequent acts, the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C. had the responsibility of "riding circuit" and personally hearing intermediate appeals, in addition to their caseload back in the capital. This onerous duty was abolished by Congress with the Judiciary Act of 1891.
Today, there are federal court of appeals, circuit courts that sit permanently in 14 appellate circuits (11 regional circuits as well as a DC Circuit, Federal Circuit, and Armed Forces Circuit). The federal court of appeals are intermediate courts, between the district courts (the federal trial courts) and the Supreme Court. Smaller circuits, such as the Second Circuit and Third Circuit, are based at a single federal courthouse, while others, such as the large Ninth Circuit, are spread across many courthouses. Since three-judge federal appellate panels are randomly selected from all sitting circuit judges, Ninth Circuit judges must often "ride the circuit," though this duty has become much easier to carry out since the development of modern air travel.
The U.S. Supreme Court justices still retain vestiges of the days of riding circuit; each justice is designated to hear certain interlocutory appeals from specific circuits and can unilaterally decide them or refer them to the entire Court. The Court's customary summer recess originated as the time during which the justices would leave Washington and ride circuit (since dirt roads were more passable in the summer).
Several U.S. states have state supreme courts that traditionally "ride the circuit" in the sense of hearing oral arguments at multiple locations throughout their jurisdictions each year. Among the states with circuit-riding supreme courts are California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
[edit] Circuits in East Asia
Circuit (道 ; Chinese: dào; Japanese: dō) was a historical political division of China, and is still a Japanese one. In Korea, the same word 道 (도; do) is translated as "province."
There is another Chinese political division, the lù (路), which is translated as "circuits" as well, because the dao and lu never coexisted. Both lu and dao literally mean "road/path".
[edit] China
Circuits originated in China in 627, when Emperor Taizong subdivided China into ten circuits. These were originally meant to be purely geographic and not administrative. Emperor Xuanzong further added five. Slowly, the circuits strengthened their own power, until they became powerful regional forces that tore the country apart during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. During the Jinn and Song, circuits were renamed lu. Dao were revived during the Yuan Dynasty.
At first, circuits were the highest of the three-tier administrative system of China; the next two were prefectures or zhou (州) and counties (縣, also translated as "districts"). They are simultaneously inspection areas (監察區 jiān chá qū). Circuits were demoted to the second-level after the Yuan Dynasty established provinces at the very top, and remained there for the next several centuries.
Circuits still existed as high-level, though not top-level, divisions of the Republic of China, such as Qiongya Circuit (now Hainan Province). In 1928, all circuits were replaced with committees or just completely abandoned.
[edit] Japan
During the pre-modern era, Japan was divided into seven routes encompassing the islands of Honshū, Shikoku, Kyūshū. The seven defunct routes spread all over the three islands:
- Tōkaidō (東海道) "East Sea Route": 15 provinces (kuni)
- Nankaidō (南海道) "South Sea Route": 6 provinces
- Saikaidō (西海道) "West Sea Route": 8 provinces
- Hokurikudō (北陸道) "North Land Route": 7 provinces
- San'indō (山陰道) "Mountain-north Route": 8 provinces
- San'yōdō (山陽道) "Mountain-south Route": 8 provinces
- Tōsandō (東山道) "East Mountain Route": 13 provinces
(For the mountain south-north reference with in and yo, see Yin Yang.)
In the mid-1800s, the northern island of Ezo was settled, and renamed Hokkaidō ("North Sea Route"). However, Hokkaido was never a "route" in the classical sense. It is essentially a prefecture with a different name from the other prefectures.
[edit] Korea
Since the late 10th century, the do (“province”) has been the primary administrative division in Korea. See Eight Provinces, Provinces of Korea, Subdivisions of South Korea and Administrative divisions of North Korea for details.
