| 释义 |
quarter sessions
Also with hyphen.
[quarter n. 8 a.]
1. In England and Ireland: A court of limited criminal and civil jurisdiction, and of appeal, held quarterly by the justices of peace in the counties (in Ireland by county-court judges), and by the recorder in boroughs; court of quarter sessions, a court of record held quarterly before two or more justices of the peace in counties and before a recorder in certain boroughs.
Quarter sessions were abolished in England on 1 Jan. 1972 by the Courts Act, 1971, and their duties largely passed to the newly-instituted Crown Court.
1577Harrison England ii. iv. (1877) i. 100 They haue finallie their quarter sessions, wherein they are assisted by the justices and gentlemen of the countrie. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 233 Justices of Peace in their Quarter-sessions, have power to hear and determine the offences aforesaid. 1711Addison Spect. No. 122 ⁋4 There is not one in the Town where he lives that he has not sued at a Quarter-Sessions. 1844Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. xix. §6 (1862) 375 Much of the criminal business of England is transacted by the quarter-sessions. 1889Act 52 & 53 Vict. c. 63. sect. 13 §14 The expression ‘court of quarter sessions’ shall mean the justices of any county, riding, parts, division, or liberty of a county, or of any county of a city, or county of a town, in general or quarter sessions assembled, and shall include the court of the recorder of a municipal borough having a separate court of quarter sessions. 1901L. Courtney Working Const. U.K. ii. 248 Prisoners apprehended under charge of crime are..committed for trial at the Assizes or Quarter Sessions. 1916Act 6 & 7 Geo. V c. 50 §38 A justice of the peace in England when committing for trial a person charged with burglary shall commit him for trial before a court of assize unless,..he thinks it expedient in the interest of justice to commit him for trial before a court of quarter sessions. 1967Act 15 & 16 Eliz. II c. 58 §8 A court of quarter sessions shall not have jurisdiction to try an indictment for any offence for which a person may be sentenced to death. 1972Daily Tel. 1 Jan. 2 The ancient legal structure of assizes and quarter sessions disappears today.
attrib.1847Tennyson Princ. Concl. 90 A quarter-sessions chairman, abler none.
2. In Scotland: A court of review and appeal held quarterly by the Justices of the Peace on days appointed by statute (1661).
1661Sc. Acts Parl. c. xxxviii. (1681), The Justices of Peace..shall appoint at the Quarter Sessions..the ordinary Hire and Wages of Labourers. 1679in Wodrow Hist. Ch. Scot. (1722) II. 17 With Power..to call the remanent Justices of Peace to the Quarter-sessions. 1773J. Erskine Inst. Laws Scot. i. iv. 60 Constables..are appointed by them in their quarter-sessions. 1898Green's Encycl. Law Scot. VII. 268 A judgment in Quarter Sessions cannot be reviewed by a later Quarter Sessions.
3. Comb. quarter-sessions rose, var. of Quatre Saisons, the name of a variety of perpetual rose, Rosa damascena var. bifera, bearing pink or white flowers.
1892C. M. Yonge Old Woman's Outlook vi. 137 The Quatre Saisons rose might very fairly become the Quarter Sessions rose. 1937Partridge Dict. Slang 676/1 Quarter-sessions rose. A ‘perpetual’ rose. |