Puisne judge and puisne justice (/ˈpjuːni/;[1] from French: puisné or puîné; puis, 'since, later' + né, 'born', i.e. 'junior') are dated[n 1] terms for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank[2] of a particular court.

Use

The term is used almost exclusively in common law jurisdictions: the jurisdiction of England and Wales within the United Kingdom; Australia, including its states and territories; Canada, including its provinces and territories; India, including its states and territories; Pakistan, its provinces, and Azad Kashmir; the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; Kenya; Sri Lanka; South Africa in rural provinces and Hong Kong.[3] In Australia, the most senior judge after a chief justice in superior state courts is referred to as the "senior puisne judge".[4]

Use is rare outside of, usually internal, court (judicial) procedural decisions as to which judge(s) will sit or has sat in hearings or appeals. The term is dated in detailed, academic case law analyses and, to varying degree direct applicability in higher courts.[4]

The term excludes the court's chief judge(s)/justice(s); any seniormost judges, often specialists or a managerial head, sitting ex officio (by virtue of their office) as such in the court for which they have duties below; and any technically junior judges who may have been called to serve in a higher court, whom law reports and transcripts customarily specify as "sitting in" a judicial panel of a higher court or "sitting as" a judge of that court.[n 2]

Etymology

Puisne is a homophone of puny as well as that word's root, meaning weak or inferior in size. The spoken form holds a negative connotation, and the written avoided in all but the most technical of documents. It has been of scarce use outside of the judiciary themselves (who have preferred the bowdlerised pronunciation /pwiːni/ since the middle of the 20th century).

By jurisdiction

Bermuda

In Bermuda, the Supreme Court comprises the Chief Justice and a number of puisne judges.[5] As of January 2020, there are three puisne judges, with a vacancy for a fourth.[6] New puisne judges are appointed by the Governor following a consultation with the Chief Justice.[7]

Canada

In Canada judges other than the chief justice of a court are referred to as puisne judges.[8][9]

Fiji

Gibraltar

In Gibraltar, puisne judges, of which there must be at least one, are responsible for family law proceedings in the Supreme Court.[10]

Jamaica

In Jamaica, the Supreme Court comprises the Chief Justice, and between 25 and 41 puisne judges, one of whom is designated the Senior Puisne Judge.[11]

Mauritius

In Mauritius, the Supreme Court comprises the Chief Justice, the Senior Puisne Judge, and 20 other puisne judges.[12]

United Kingdom

England and Wales

In England and Wales, judges of the High Court are referred to as puisne judges, unless the judge in question holds a specific title, such as Lord Chief Justice.[13][14] Puisne judges must have at least seven years' experience as a barrister, or at least two years' experience as a circuit judge.[15] The maximum number of puisne judges permitted in England and Wales at any one time is the full-time equivalent of 108.[16]

Puisne judges are styled as The Honourable Mr/Mrs/Ms Justice [surname].[13]

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, judges of the High Court are referred to as puisne judges, with the exception of the Lord Chief Justice.[17] The maximum number of puisne judges permitted in Northern Ireland at any one time is 15.[18]

Puisne judges are styled as The Honourable Mr/Mrs/Madam Justice [surname].[19]

United States

The term is not currently used in the United States including its 56 constituent states, territories or federal district — 51 of which are common law jurisdictions, and three of which are quasi-common law jurisdictions.[20] Instead, the term associate justice is used by the United States Supreme Court,[21] and by most state and territorial high courts, where the term associate judge is also used widely.

See also

References

References
  1. ↑ "Puisne". Lexico Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on March 23, 2020. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
  2. ↑ "puisne". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins.
  3. ↑ Hong Kong remains a common law jurisdiction under the principle of "one country, two systems" enacted prior to the repatriation of the former British Crown Colony in 1997.
  4. 1 2 "Rules of the Supreme Court of Western Australia 1971". Australian Legal Information Institute. Archived from the original on 2018-01-07. Retrieved July 13, 2017.
  5. ↑ Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, section 73(2)
  6. ↑ "The Bermuda Judiciary Annual Report 2019" (PDF). Supreme Court. Government of Bermuda. 14 February 2020. p. 62. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  7. ↑ Bermuda Constitution Order 1968, section 73(4)
  8. ↑ "Judges Act". Department of Justice, Canada. 2021-06-16. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  9. ↑ "Canada's Supreme Court: Meet the judges". CBC News. 2016-10-17. Retrieved 2021-07-08.
  10. ↑ Supreme Court Act, section 12A(1)
  11. ↑ Judicature (Supreme Court) Act, section 5(1)
  12. ↑ "Supreme Court". supremecourt.govmu.org. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  13. 1 2 Holland, James; Webb, Julian (2019). Learning Legal Rules (Tenth ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-19-879990-0. OCLC 1108710547.
  14. ↑ "High Court judges". www.judiciary.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
  15. ↑ Law, Jonathan, ed. (2018). "Puisne judge". A Dictionary of Law (Ninth ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. p. 457. ISBN 978-0-19-184080-7. OCLC 1043882876.
  16. ↑ Senior Courts Act 1981, section 4(1)(e) (as amended)
  17. ↑ Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978, section 2(1)
  18. ↑ The Maximum Number of Judges Order (Northern Ireland) 2020, article 2
  19. ↑ "Judiciary of Northern Ireland". Judiciary NI. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
  20. ↑ Louisiana and Puerto Rico are civil law jurisdictions; American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands use a mix of local customary law and common law; and under 1 VIC Sec. 4, the basic law of the U.S. Virgin Islands is "The rules of the common law, as expressed in the Restatements of Law approved by American Law Institute, and to the extent not so expressed, as generally understood and applied in the United States ... in the absence of local laws to the contrary."
  21. ↑ 28 U.S. Code § 1.
Notes
  1. ↑ In most jurisdictions such as England and Wales, Gibraltar, and Canada
  2. ↑ There are two types of exceptions in which a puisne judge would sit in a higher court. First, the superior exception is a practice of calling one to a higher court due to special knowledge or status to provide added expertise and weight to a decision. In that case, he is clearly not a puisne judge. It may be reported as sitting as a judge of the [name of appeal court] "extraordinarily" or "presiding" which are sometimes official terms and may result in their giving the leading judgment (usually first-in-order opinion). The inferior exception is, for example, local judges sitting in a High/Crown/Federal/Appeal Court in which case reports describe that person usually by a lower honorific (e.g. Mr, or Sir...) and "sitting in as a xxx Court judge" in the headers of the report.
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