Sc. Law. [For Justice’s Clerk.] (Since 1681, Lord Justice-Clerk.) The vice-president of the Scotch Court of Justiciary, presiding also over the Outer House or Second Division of the Court of Session. Hence JUSTICE-CLERKSHIP.
His title is derived from the fact that he was originally the Clerk of the JUSTICE-GENERAL, whose legal duties he eventually entirely performed.
1424. Sc. Acts Jas. I. (1597), § 20. The Iustice Clerk be the inditement, sall gar sik trespassoures be corrected befoir the Iustice, and punished as said is.
c. 1575. Balfour’s Practicks (1754), 565. Item, The Justice-clerk sall have for ilk persoun that is clengit be ane assise … iiij.d.
1737. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. II. iv. 376. Lord Justice-Clerk … he is the Second Person in the Justice-Court, being next to the Justice-General; but now he is one of the Officers of State, though the Justice-General be none.
1861. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 541. The Lord-Justice-Clerk in absence of the Lord-Justice-General, is the presiding judge in the Court of Justiciary…. Prior to 1641 the Justice-Clerk was not one of the judges … but merely the clerk and assessor of Court.
