Stipendiary Magistrate Research Articles

The Apprenticeship System in the Caribbean

Abstract Slavery was abolished in the Anglophone Caribbean on August 1, 1834. On that date, the enslaved became legally free. However, the freedom of the enslaved was heavily circumscribed by the Apprenticeship system which followed immediately after August 1. Under the terms of this system, former slaves—now called apprentices—were required to work up to 45 hours per week for their former masters without compensation. Apprentices resisted the system at its outset; subsequently, they attempted to assert their rights as much as possible during the Apprenticeship period, even in the face of a highly oppressive system. Yet, like the enslaved, apprentices have left very little direct evidence in the form of letters or diaries. But because of their appearances before the stipendiary magistrates and in the reports generated about the Apprenticeship system, we can recreate aspects of their world and understand how apprentices sought to take advantage of Apprenticeship for their own benefit.

Sybil Campbell, first woman judge and supporter of higher education for women

ABSTRACT Sybil Campbell was appointed a Metropolitan stipendiary magistrate in 1945, the first woman to become a full-time judge in the courts of England and Wales. She sat for 16 years, at Tower Bridge Magistrates’ Court, where she met with a great deal of opprobrium from the national and local press, trade unionists and individuals, much of it directed to the fact that she was a woman dispensing justice, with some severity, in a working-class community. She weathered the criticism with indifference and continued until her retirement, in 1961. Her pioneering example, however, did not encourage the appointment of other women to a judicial role until the appointment of Elizabeth Lane as a county court judge in 1962. This article examines her judicial career and her work for the British Federation of University Women, of which she was Honorary Secretary and its honorary vice-president.

The McLean Report: legitimising Victoria’s new assimilationism

In 1955, the newly elected Victorian Premier, Henry BoIte, appointed retired stipendiary magistrate, Charles McLean, to conduct an inquiry into the operation of Victoria's Aborigines Act 1928. The Liberal government expected McLean's findings to reflect the assimilationist trend which was being advocated by other Australian States and Territories. Subsequently, the inquiry's five terms of reference ensured that McLean broadened Victoria's definition of Aboriginality to include large numbers of 'mixed descent' Aboriginal people, and that he formulated methods by which Aboriginal people could be assimilated into Anglo-Australian society. In general, government directives controlled the scope of the McLean Inquiry and meant that in many respects McLean served as a puppet for the Victorian government. However, the manner in which McLean sometimes deviated from these directives indicates that he was not merely a government mouthpiece.

Ralph Brush Cleghorn of St. Kitts (1804–1842)

A first biography of a St. Kitts antislavery free coloured activist who campaigned for the twin objectives of free coloureds' civil rights and slave emancipation. Cleghorn's service as Stipendiary Magistrate, Member of the Assembly, and finally president and senior member of Council of Nevis casts light on both the possibilities available to well-connected ‘qualified’ free coloureds and the persistence of racial prejudice in post-emancipation St. Kitts and Nevis.

Gender, Language, Violence and Slavery: Insult in Jamaica, 1800–1838

Gender, Language, Violence and Slavery: Insult in Jamaica, 1800–1838

Denying Responsibility

In Scottish Executive statistics and in this paper, the term ‘community sentence’ is used to refer to probation, community service, supervised attendance, restriction of liberty and drug treatment and testing orders. All Scottish courts, with the exception of the lay District Court, have the power to impose any of these sentences. As in other jurisdictions, the sentencing options available vary with the powers of the different criminal courts. The High Court hears the most serious cases, including all cases of murder and rape, and has no limits on the length of imprisonment or amount of fine. The Judge in the High Court sits alone with a jury of 15. Though Scotland has no established tradition of sentencing guidelines, the High Court does have the power to issue them. In the Sheriff Court, in serious cases—on solemn procedure—the legally qualified Sheriff sits alone with a jury of 15 and can impose sentences of up to three years’ imprisonment and fines of up to £5,000. At the time at which the research was conducted, in less serious cases, in the Sheriff Court on summary procedure and in the Stipendiary Magistrates’ Court (there is only one in Glasgow), sentences of up to three months’ imprisonment, or six months’ for a second or subsequent conviction for violence or dishonesty, and a fine of up to £5,000 could be imposed. The Sheriff and the legally qualified Stipendiary Magistrate sit alone. Last, the District Court—the only lay court in Scotland—hears more minor cases and can impose up to 60 days’ imprisonment or a fine of up to £2,500. There will normally be one Justice of the Peace, although there may be more. At present, the powers and jurisdiction of the summary courts are undergoing change.

Magistrates: The Future According to Auld

This paper arises out of work I undertook before I was appointed to my present post. I wish to comment narrowly on Auld’s proposals for the future role of magistrates (in which category, for present purposes, I include district judges, formerly stipendiary magistrates), and will do so in the light of my own published research, commissioned jointly by the Home Office and Lord Chancellor’s Department to inform Auld’s deliberations. In the process I will comment on the manner in which Auld drew on, or failed to draw on, data generated in the course of that research.

Former Head of Foreign State–Extradition–Immunity

Senator Pinochet, former President of Chile, when undergoing medical treatment in London, was arrested on warrants issued by Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrates. The authorities of Spain had sought his extradition to Spain to stand trial, principally, for his allegedly having authorised, when President of Chile, the torture in Chile of many persons, including Spanish citizens. Pinochet challenged the warrants by way of judicial review proceedings; the Divisional Court quashed them by certiorari on the ground that, as former head of State, he was immune from the jurisdiction of the English courts. The House of Lords allowed an appeal in part by a bare majority (Lords Nicholls and Steyn with whom Lord Hoffmann concurred, Lords Slynn and Lloyd dissenting: R. v. Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, ex p. Pinochet [1998] 2 W.L.R. 825, henceforth Pinochet (1)). That ruling was set aside “on the ground that the Committee was not properly constituted” (ex p. Pinochet (No. 2) [1999] 1 All E.R. 577); a rehearing of the appeal took place before a differently constituted Judicial Committee (ex p. Pinochet (No. 3) [1999] 2 W.L.R. 827). It, by a large majority (Lords Browne-Wilkinson, Hope, Hutton, Saville, Millett and Phillips, Lord Goff dissenting), also allowed the appeal in part.

The lady of tower bridge: Sybil Campbell, England's first woman judge

Nearly 80 years after they gained entry to the legal profession in England women remain greatly underrepresented in the judiciary. This article examines the career of Sybil Campbell, England's first full-time woman judge. It explores the criticisms of her appointment as stipendiary magistrate at Tower Bridge in 1945 and the press campaign against her severe sentences which followed. It concludes that, while she was not esteemed a success by the authorities, the main reason for the long gap before the appointment of the next female judge (in 1962) was the control of practically all appointments

United Kingdom House of Lords. Regina v. Bow Street Stipendiary Magistrate ex parte Pinochet Ugarte (No. 3). [1999] 2 WLR 827

United Kingdom House of Lords. Regina v. Bow Street Stipendiary Magistrate ex parte Pinochet Ugarte (No. 3). [1999] 2 WLR 827

The Role and Appointment of Stipendiary Magistrates

The Role and Appointment of Stipendiary Magistrates

Sentencing Studies: Comment on Diamond

in London courts, Diamond found that stipendiaries tended to give more severe sentences.' This study raises a number of methodological problems that cast doubt on some of conclusions: The cases sentenced by two types of magistrates may not have been comparable, scoring of sentences was not sufficiently refined, and committal to Crown Court for trial was not considered. Allocation of cases to lay or stipendiary magistrates. It is not clear from Diamond's article on what basis cases were allocated to two types of magistrates, although author states that the chief clerks at three courts [observed] appeared to divide full mix of cases between lay and stipendiary courtrooms (my emphasis). Little research has been done on this topic, and basis of allocation probably varies from court to court and among stipendiaries. Cain and Sadigh, for example, found court staff had preconceptions about characteristics of stipendiaries and allocated cases to them according to what they thought was appropriate.2 More recently Crown Prosecution Service (introduced in 1986) is thought to have recommended allocation of more legally complex cases to stipendiaries, and these would probably include more cases with not-guilty pleas. But whatever basis of allocation to magistrates, it certainly is not determined by a random method, which would be only way of making a fair comparison. Failing this,

Stipendiary Magistrates and Supreme Court of the North-West Territories, 1876-1907

The author discusses the office and role of the early Stipendiary Magistrates in the North- West Territories and their effect on establishing judicial institutions.

The Contours of Canadian Urban Justice, 1830-1875

Cet article relate trois grandes étapes dans l'évolution de deux processus étroitement reliés, l'administration civique canadienne et la justice urbaine au 19e siècle. Les cours de première instance, administrées à l'origine par des juges de paix assignés par la Couronne et soumis à sa tutelle, ont été transformées, à l'époque des incorporations municipales, en cours civiles sous la juridiction des maires et des élus municipaux. Finalement, les villes adoptent un système permanent de rémunération des magistrats nommés par le gouvernement, mettant ainsi fin à la tradition d'une magistrature urbaine non-qualifiée et réduisant les prérogatives judiciaires du bureau du maire. La justice urbaine, le plus important service municipal au milieu du 19e siècle, a été en grande partie négligée par les historiens canadiens. Des études ultérieures permettront d'examiner la nature de la police et des cours et aussi, d'une façon prometteuse, d'explorer la question de la popularité relative des institutions locales de justice.

A Poor Man's System of Justice: the London Police Courts in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Of the three major innovations in law enforcement in nineteenth-century England, the penitentiaries, the new police and the stipendiary magistracy, the stipendiary magistracy came first. Three years before Patrick Colquhoun published his influential Treatise on the police of the metropolis, urging the foundation of a centralized preventative police force, the Middlesex Justices Act of 1792 established a system of paid magistrates for metropolitan London. The stipendiary magistracy sitting in police offices was further reformed in the 1820s and 1830s, the same decades which saw the organization of the metropolitan police. By 1838 the police courts had taken their final shape, remaining largely unaltered into the twentieth century. Side by side with the new police, stipendiary magistrates were the primary instruments of public order in Victorian London.

On the Consistency of Court Dispositions in the Juvenile Criminal Justice System: A Research Note

An analysis of 13,919 cases dealt with by the Children's Court during a two year period showed significant differences between the regional patterns of dispositions made by the courts in respect of comparable male juvenile offenders (Crimes Act). Urban courts presided over by special children's magistrates were more lenient than countrty courts with regular stipendiary magistrates, except for committing greater numbers of offenders for trial in a higher court. Country courts in general tended to be more lenient in respect of selected offences than country courts located in areas of Aboriginal concentration. However, differences were also found between the dispositions of individual urban courts which could not be accounted for by the social and circumstantial factors associated with regional differences.

Systems of Domination after Slavery: The Control of Land and Labor in the British West Indies after 1838

Four years after their “emancipation” in 1838, the former slaves of British Guiana protested against their conditions and their unfair treatment by the planters who sought to bind them to labor on the estates. When the planters introduced certain rules and regulations, which were intended to regulate the quality and quantity of work, and to reduce labor costs by lowering wages and abolishing customary allowances of free medical attention, housing, and provision grounds, the workers complained to the stipendiary magistrates and stopped work.

A general practitioner looks at violence

Let me first confess to a certain degree of anxiety at the task that has been set for me. In the face of such a highly informed audience I am wide open to the charge of being a grand-matriarchal oval aspiration instructor, and I am reminded of the story of Hiram B. Goodchild who survived the Johnstown floods in Pennsylvania in 1889, in which some 2300 people were drowned as the result of a reservoir bursting. Hiram never tired of retelling his experiences, and became one of the best known bores in the state. This reputation did not pass unnoticed by St. Peter, for when he in due course arrived at the pearly gates and was asked if he had any special requests, the saint’s face fell when Hiram said that he would like to address a combined meeting of the archangels, cherubim and seraphim. After a moment the saint’s countenance cleared as he recalled that this sort of thing was the concern of the Archangel Gabriel, coming under the heading of “Communication”. Gabriel, too, was a little depressed at the request, but in the end agreed, and in due season the archangels, cherubim and seraphim were assembled in the Great Hall, with Gabriel occupying the chair. Just as Hiram B. Goodchild was about to address the congregation, Gabriel said, “I think it only fair to tell you that Mr and Mrs Noah and their family are seated in the front row”. Obviously I am no expert, and the view that I shall present is that of a generalist. I do not altogether apologise for this, for expertise can in itself present problems, as is well illustrated by what I am assured is the true story of a certain stipendiary magistrate, who regarded himself as something of an expert upon drugs. Before him was a defendant charged with illegally possessing cannabis resin, and the prosecution, being uncertain as to whether this was the genuine article or a mixture of sawdust, treacle, curry powder and glue, were seeking an adjournment to obtain an analyst’s report. The stipendiary would have none of this. “Pass it up here”, he said, “I know cannabis

A Practical Guide to Appeals in Criminal Courts. By Peter Morrish, Barrister, Deputy Clerk of the Central Criminal Court, and Ian Mclean, Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate. [London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1971. xxxv, 143 and (Index) 9 pp. £2.25 net.

A Practical Guide to Appeals in Criminal Courts. By Peter Morrish, Barrister, Deputy Clerk of the Central Criminal Court, and Ian Mclean, Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate. [London: Sweet & Maxwell. 1971. xxxv, 143 and (Index) 9 pp. £2.25 net.

Commonwealth “Extradition”: The Case of Duncan Crux

The vancouver lawyer and financier, A. G. Duncan Crux was arrested in the Bahamas on June 3, 1969, on a provisional warrant issued by the chief magistrate in Nassau, before whom five informations, containing a total of twenty-one charges against Crux, were laid by the government of Canada. Canada sought to have him returned to Canada for trial. The charges were heard before a stipendiary and circuit magistrate and, on December 5, Crux was committed to await return to Canada.