250px|thumb|A trial at the [[Old Bailey in
London as drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin for Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808-11).]]
A
court is a body, often a
governmental
institution, with the
authority to
adjudicate legal disputes and dispense
civil,
criminal, or
administrative justice in accordance with rules of
law.
In
common law and
civil law states, courts are the central means for
dispute resolution, and it is generally understood that all persons have an ability to bring their claims before a court. Similarly, those accused of a crime have the right to present their defense before a court.
Court facilities range from a simple farmhouse for a village court in a rural community to huge buildings housing dozens of courtrooms in large cities.
A
court is a kind of deliberative assembly with special powers, called its
jurisdiction, or
jus dicere, to decide certain kinds of questions or petitions put to it. According to
William Blackstone's
Commentaries on the Laws of England, a court is constituted by a minimum of three parties, namely, the actor, reus, and judex, though, often, courts consist of additional
attorneys,
bailiffs,
reporters, and perhaps a
jury.
The term "court" is often used to refer to the
president of the court, also known as the "judge" or the "
bench", or the panel of such officials. For example, in the United States, and other common law jurisdictions, the term "court" (in the case of U.S. federal courts) by law is used to describe the judge himself or herself.
In the United States, the legal authority of a court to take action is based on three pillars of power over the
parties to the litigation: (1) Personal jurisdiction; (2) Subject matter jurisdiction; and (3) Venue.
Etymology
The word
court comes from the French
cour, an enclosed yard, which derives from the Latin form
cortem, the accusative case of
cohors, which again means an enclosed yard or the occupants of such a yard (from
hortus = garden). The meaning of a judicial assembly is first attested in the 12th century, and derives from the earlier usage to designate a sovereign and his entourage, which met to adjudicate disputes in such an enclosed yard. The verb "to court", meaning to win favor, derives from the same source since people traveled to the sovereign's court to win his favor.
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction, meaning "to speak the law," is the power of a court over a person or a claim. In the United States, a court must have both
personal jurisdiction and
subject matter jurisdiction. Each state establishes a court system for the territory under its control. This system allocates work to courts or authorized individuals by granting both
civil and
criminal jurisdiction (in the
United States, this is termed
subject-matter jurisdiction). The grant of power to each category of court or individual may stem from a provision of a written
constitution or from an enabling
statute. In
English law, jurisdiction may be
inherent, deriving from the common law origin of the particular court.
Trial and appellate courts
Courts may be classified as
trial courts (sometimes termed "courts of first instance", "Original Jurisdiction") and
appellate courts. Some trial courts may function with a
judge and a
jury: juries make
findings of fact under the direction of the judge who reaches
conclusions of law (called a
jury trial) and, in combination, this represents the
judgment of the court. In other trial courts, decisions of both fact and law are made by judges (called a
bench trial). Juries are less common in court systems outside the Anglo-American
common law tradition.
Civil law courts and common law courts
The two major models for courts are the civil law courts and the common law courts. Civil law courts are based upon the judicial system in France, while the common law courts are based on the judicial system in Britain. In most
civil law jurisdictions, courts function under an
inquisitorial system. In the
common law system, most courts follow the
adversarial system.
Procedural law governs the rules by which
courts operate:
civil procedure for private disputes (for example); and
criminal procedure for violation of the
criminal law.
See also
General
Types and organization of courts
