The American JudiciaryBaldwin, Simeon E. (Simeon Eben)
History
The American Judiciary
Baldwin, Simeon E. (Simeon Eben)
Courts -- United States; Law -- United States -- History
Each fully organized Territory has a set of local courts and one
Supreme Court to which appeals can be taken and the judgments of
which, in cases of large pecuniary magnitude or great legal
importance, can be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United
States. These territorial courts do not exercise what is known
in the strict sense and designated in the Constitution as "the
judicial power of the United States." They are created to meet
temporary conditions, and with judges whose commissions run only
for a few years. Such courts are instruments through which
Congress exercises its power of regulating the territory of the
United States. They act judicially. They have judicial power.
But the source of this power is not the clause in the
Constitution under which the judicial power of the United States
is defined.[Footnote: American Insurance Co. _v._ Canter, 1
Peters' Reports, 511.] It is therefore not necessary to confine
such courts strictly to the consideration of judicial business.
In the organization of our earliest Territories the judges were
given legislative functions, and while this was originally due to
the terms of the Ordinance of 1787, it was confirmed by various
Acts of Congress after the adoption of the Constitution of the
United States.
The Philippines are governed under an Act of Congress by a
commission acting under the supervision of the Secretary of War.
The organization of courts established by Spain has been in
substance preserved. The Spanish law which was in force there
was expressed in codes mainly founded on those framed for France
under Napoleon I. In 1901, the Spanish code of civil procedure
was supplanted by one prepared by a member of the Philippine
Commission, and which is now familiarly known by his name as the
Ide Code. In substance, it establishes the mode of proceeding in
civil cases which is known in the United States as code pleading.
Trial by jury has not been introduced into the Philippines either
in civil or criminal causes, and need not be.[Footnote: Dorr
_v._ United States, 195 U. S. Reports, 138.]
In criminal causes, the Spanish system was originally retained,
allowing either party, the United States or the defendant, to
appeal from the judgment of the court of first instance to the
Supreme Court of the islands and have there a new hearing both as
to fact and law. This, however, so far as concerns an appeal by
the government, was held to be contrary to the Act of Congress
under which it was constituted.[Footnote: Kepner _v._ United
States, 195 U. S. Reports, 100.]
The courts of the United States are generally provided with an
officer styled a marshal. He executes their process, attends
their sessions, and exercises in general the functions which
belong to a sheriff as respects State courts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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