The Court of Exchequer Chamber was an English

appellate court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...

for

common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...

civil actions before the reforms of the

Judicature Acts In the history of the courts of England and Wales, the Judicature Acts were a series of acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, beginning in the 1870s, which aimed to fuse the hitherto split system of courts of England and Wales. The ...

of 1873–1875. It originated in the fourteenth century, established in its final form by the Error From Queen's Bench Act 1584 ( 27 Eliz. 1. c. 8). The court heard references from the King's Bench, the Court of Exchequer and, from 1830, directly rather than indirectly from the Court of Common Pleas. It was constituted of four

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

s belonging to the two courts that had been uninvolved at

first instance First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

. In cases of exceptional importance such as the '' Case of Mines'' (1568) and '' R v Hampden'' (1637) twelve common law judges, four from each division below, sitting in Exchequer Chamber, might be asked to determine a point of law, the matter being referred by the court hearing the case rather than the parties. Though further appeal to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

was possible, this was rare before the nineteenth century. As a rule, a judgment of the Exchequer Chamber was considered the definitive statement of the law. Certain judgments like ''Hampden'' (the case of

ship money Ship money was a tax of medieval origin levied intermittently in the Kingdom of England until the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that English monarchs cou ...

) caused political controversy. It was superseded by the

Court of Appeal of England and Wales The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only to ...

References

Bibliography

* * {{English Exchequer Former courts and tribunals in England and Wales Legal history of England English civil law 14th-century establishments in England Courts and tribunals established in the 14th century 1875 disestablishments in England Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1875