Conciliar courts

Abstract

Abstract This chapter is concerned with the so-called ‘prerogative courts’ or ‘conciliar courts’, which were associated with the king’s council. They followed a bill-procedure similar to that of the Chancery, without juries, and applied equity. As with the Chancery, their claims to encroach on the common law by granting injunctions, and their use of imprisonment, were constantly challenged. The Star Chamber—the whole council sitting at Westminster, attended by the chief justices—was legally immemorial and beyond such challenges; but its power to enforce a monetary judgment was questioned in 1614, when the judges were overruled by the councillors. The Court of Requests was a more recent offshoot of the council, attended by a sub-group of councillors but making decrees in its own name. Attacks on its jurisdiction, as contrary to Magna Carta, were made as early as 1501 and continued until the seventeenth century. The judges regarded it with disfavour as having no legal basis, but it was protected by the Privy Council and survived until 1641, when conciliar jurisdiction was abolished. The warmest disputes with the judges involved the two provincial councils in the North and in the Marches of Wales, which wielded strong coercive powers under forceful presidents. Although Chief Justice Coke claimed some victories in curbing their powers, they survived until formal abolition. Many of these disputes were fought through the medium of habeas corpus.