The 'Lectric Law Library's Lexicon On
* Bench *
BENCH - The Court or the judges collectively.
The place in a courtroom, usually raised, where the judge sits. The furniture on which the judge sits is called the bench. When something is done from the bench, it means it was done by a trial judge.
Latin Bancus, used for tribunal. In England there are two courts to which this word is applied. Bancus Regius, King's Bench Bancus Communis, Common Bench or Pleas. The jus banci properly belongs to the king's judges, who administer justice in the last resort. The judges of the inferior courts, as of the barons, are deemed to, judge plano pede, and are such as are called in the civil law pedanei judices, or by the Greeks Xauaidixastai, that is, humi judicantes. The Greeks called the seats of their higher judges Bumata, and of their inferior judges Bathra. The Romans used the word sellae and tribunalia, to designate the seats of their higher judges, and subsellia, to designate those of the lower.
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