Chambers in United Kingdom

Definition of Chambers

In accordance with the work A Dictionary of Law, this is a description of Chambers :

1. The offices occupied by a barrister or group of barristers. (The term is also used for the group of barristers practising from a set of chambers.)

2. The private office of a judge, master, or district judge. Most *interim proceedings are held in chambers (in private) and the public is not admitted, although judgment may be given in open court if the matter is one of public interest.

History

Chambers (the Fr. chambre, from Lat. camera, a room), a term used generally of rooms or apartments, but especially in law of the offices of a lawyer or the semi-private rooms in which judges or judicial officers deal with questions of practice and 822 other matters not of sufficient importance to be dealt with in court. It is a matter of doubt at what period the practice of exercising jurisdiction “in chambers” commenced in England; there is no statutory sanction before 1821, though the custom can be traced back to the 17th century.

An act of 1821 provided for sittings in chambers between terms, and an act of 1822 empowered the sovereign to call upon the judges by warrant to sit in chambers on as many days in vacation as should seem fit, while the Law Terms Act 1830 defined the jurisdiction to be exercised at chambers. The Judges’ Chambers Act 1867 was the first act, however, to lay down proper regulations for chamber work, and the Judicature Act 1873 preserved that jurisdiction and gave power to increase it as might be directed or authorized by rules of court to be thereafter made. (See Court of Chancery; King’s Bench) (1)

Meaning of Chambers

The following is an old definition of Chambers [1]: In London, the offices of barristers.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Concept of Chambers provided by the Anderson Dictionary of Law (1889) (Dictionary of Law consisting of Judicial Definitions and Explanations of Words, Phrases and Maxims and an Exposition of the Principles of Law: Comprising a Dictionary and Compendium of American and English Jurisprudence; William C. Anderson; T. H. Flood and Company, Law Publishers, Chicago, United States)

Resources

Notes and References

1. Encyclopedia Britannica (11th Edition)

See Also

Further Reading