| Court of Chancery | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1292 |
| Dissolved | 1877 |
| Jurisdiction | Lordship of Ireland,Kingdom of Ireland, and Ireland within theUnited Kingdom |
| Location | Dublin, from 18th century withinFour Courts, Inns Quay |
| Lord Chancellor of Ireland | |
TheCourt of Chancery was a court which exercisedequitable jurisdiction inIreland until its abolition as part of the reform of the court system in 1877. It was the court in which theLord Chancellor of Ireland presided. Its final sitting place was at theFour Courts inDublin, which still stands.
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The Chancery in Ireland was set up in1232, following the model of theCourt of Chancery of England.[1] The court was abolished under theSupreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 and its jurisdiction transferred to the Chancery Division of the newly establishedHigh Court of Justice in Ireland, while the Lord Chancellor presided over theCourt of Appeal in Ireland. In 1920, the High Court was split into separate courts forNorthern Ireland andSouthern Ireland under theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920. While the Northern Ireland court still maintains a separate Chancery Division, theIrish Free State abolished the divisions of the High Court under theCourts of Justice Act 1924. The High Court of Ireland still maintains a "chancery list", although any judge of the Court may now exercise its jurisdiction in equity.
In the early centuries of the office, the Lord Chancellor was a senior cleric, usually though not invariably an Englishman by birth.[2] In the 15th and 16th centuries, a nobleman sometimes held the office, acting through a deputy. From theReformation on, he was usually a trained lawyer, though the practice of appointing a senior cleric only ended withMichael Boyle,Archbishop of Armagh, who retired in 1686.
In addition to his judicial functions, the Lord Chancellor had a key political role. Until theActs of Union 1800, he was Speaker of theIrish House of Lords even though he often did not hold apeerage. After the Union, he was still required to advise both British and Irish Governments on a range of political and legal matters. He was often called on to steer legislation through the House of Lords:Lord O'Hagan was created a peer so that he might assist in passing theSupreme Court of Judicature Act.
The office ofMaster of the Rolls in Ireland existed from the 14th century. Originally his functions were clerical, but in time he became in effect an assistant Lord Chancellor. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the office was notoriously asinecure for absentee English politicians, but from 1800 on a determined effort was made to appoint judges of real ability.[3]
In 1867 a new office of Vice-Chancellor was created to assist the Master of the Rolls at first instance. It was abolished in 1904; throughout its existence, the office was only held by one man,Hedges Eyre Chatterton.
TheCourt of Appeal in Chancery in Ireland was created in 1857.[4] The Lord Chancellor sat as a judge of appeal, with a single Lord Justice of Appeal in Chancery in Ireland to assist him. The drawback to this arrangement was that the two might disagree asLord O'Hagan andJonathan Christian frequently did. In contrast, when theCourt of Appeal in Ireland was set up in 1878, it sat as a bench of three.
Originally the Lord Chancellor was "keeper of the king's conscience", charged with giving relief in any case where thecourts of common law could not supply a remedy. In time, as in England, equity developed into a fully-fledged legal system in its own right, parallel to the common law.
James Roderick O'Flanagan, writing in 1870, examined the Calendar of the Irish Court of Chancery in the reigns ofHenry VIII andElizabeth I, and found the ordinary business of the Court then to be quite similar to that of his own time: injunctions to stay proceedings in acommon law court, proceedings to compel atrustee to make over an estate to the plaintiff, discovery of deeds, and actions to set aside deeds obtained byfraud.[5]
Apart from the ordinary business of the Court, certain functions were reserved to the Lord Chancellor: care ofminors andwards of court, discipline ofsolicitors andcoroners, and removal ofjustices of the peace. In 1924 the special functions of the Lord Chancellor were vested in theChief Justice of Ireland;[6] in 1936 responsibility for minors and wards of court was transferred to the President of the High Court[7] and in 1960 discipline of solicitors was transferred to the President of the High Court.[8]
