JUSTICES OF
THE PEACE
Justices of the Peace were first
officially mentioned in the Justices of the Peace Act of
1361, which provided for three or four of “the most
worthy in each county” to be commissioned to do
justice locally. Powers to punish offenders were added
before the end of that century. However, the image of the
county magistrate riding from town to town to deal with
offenders has long since gone and the present day
magistrate is quite a different person. Nowadays they are
drawn from a wide cross section of the local community to
provide a fair balance between social background, ages
and sexes - people with the right personal qualities and
suitability to hold an important and historical position
in the judicial system of England and Wales. The
magistrates’ court system has taken centuries to
evolve and now provides a means of offering prompt local
justice at reasonable cost, its underlying principles
being “open justice, fairness and equality of
treatment for all”.
The system is always under constant
review and continues to evolve. Magistrates these days
have far more training and have to develop a much better
understanding of the judicial system than ever before.
