In 1619, by the writ of quo warranto, a government office or official
could be made to explain by what right he performed certain acts.
James I asserted an authority to determine the jurisdiction between the
various courts.
The Court of High Commission heard mostly matrimonial cases, but also moral offenses both of clergy and laity, and simony [buying or selling ecclesiastical preferment, eclectically pardons, or other things regarded as sacred or spirtual], plurality, drunkenness, and other clerical irregularities.
The Star Chamber Court still was primarily directed against force and fraud and defended the common people from over-mighty lords and over-pliable Justices of the Peace, for instance by deterring enclosure. It also enforced monopolies. However, there was a growing tendency for King James, who sat on it, to abuse its power with high fines. For instance, a lord accused with foul language by a huntsman of following hounds of a chase too closely threatened to use his horse whip on the huntsman's master when the huntsman threatened to complain to his master. The lord was fined 10,000 pounds. James' council used torture to obtain information from accused felons about possible conspiracies against him.
The ordinary administrative court of first instance is formed by the single Justices of the Peace, who issue orders regarding public safety, order, public morals, health, the poor, highways, water, fields, forests, fisheries, trade, building, and fire, and particularly begging and vagrancy as well as regulations of wages, servants, apprentices, and day laborers. For more important resolutions, the special sessions of the Justices of the Peace of a hundred for a court of intermediate instance and appointed overseers of the poor. All Justices of the Peace were present at the quarter sessions, which were held at least four times a year, and were primarily a court of appeal from penal sentences, but also make the county rate, appoint county treasurers and county prison and house of correction governors, regulate prices and wages, settle fees of county officials, grant licenses for powder mills, and register dissenting chapels. It heard appeals expressly allowed by statute. The central courts also heard appeals by writ of certiorari as to whether an administrative act was in accordance with existing law, whether the court is competent, and whether the administrative law has been rightly interpreted. This writ of certiorari ceased in the 1700s.
Justices of the Peace who have the power to give restitution of possession to tenants of any freehold estate of their lands or tenements which have been forcibly entered and withheld, shall have like power for tenants for term of years, tenants by copy of court roll, guardians by knight service, and tenants by elegit statute merchant and staple of lands or tenements [tenant-plaintiffs holding property to receive income therefrom for satisfaction of a debt of defendants].
The Justices of the Peace were chosen by the Crown, usually by the Chancellor. The qualifications were residence in the county, suitability of moral character, religious uniformity, and the possession of lands or tenements with twenty pounds a year. They were almost exclusively country gentlemen, except in the towns. In the corporate towns, the mayor, bailiff, recorder, and senior aldermen were ex officio [by virtue of the office] Justices of the Peace. Their main duty was to keep the peace. If a justice heard of a riot in the making, he could compel individuals at the place to give bonds of good-a-bearing and cause a proclamation to be made in the King's name for them to disperse. Two justices or more had the authority to arrest the rioters and send a record of it to the assizes and to the Privy Council. If the riot had taken place before their arrival, they could make an inquiry by a jury and certify the results to the King and his Council. The justices had men brought before them on many kinds of charges, on their own summons, or on initiative of the petty constable. They tried to draw these men into confession by questioning. After indictment, a person had the choice of a petty jury trial or paying a fine. The Justices of the Peace could insist upon presentment juries or surveys of offenses by local officers, but, without the institution of policemen, not many crimes were prosecuted because victims were unwilling or could not afford to initiate judicial action. Their unwillingness was partly due to the severity of penalties, e.g. death for the theft of over 12s. and whippings and fines for misdemeanors. Further, the offender was frequently a neighbor with whom one would have to live. Mediation by the local constable often took place. When there an outbreak of lawlessness in an area, a commission might be set up especially for that area to enforce the law.
Assault cases were common in courts of assize and courts of quarter sessions. The quarter sessions were those of a number of Justices of the Peace held for a couple of days four times a year for the more important cases in the jurisdiction of the Justices of the Peace. Assault was violence or threat of imminent violence. Fines were graduated according to the means of the offender, who was usually bound over to keep the peace. Most involved offenders and victims who were neighbors and included people of substantial standing in the village. Also, a sizable minority were directed against local officers such as constables, bailiffs, or tax- collectors.
Three-fourths of all assize indictments and many quarter-sessions indictments were for various types of theft, including petty larceny, grand larceny, housebreaking, burglary, sheep stealing, and robbery. These offenses were mostly opportunistic rather than planned, except for London's underworld of professional thieves and the cutpurses of country markets and highway robbers on lonely roads. There were substantial peaks in theft in periods of harvest failure and industrial depression, especially by vagrants. But most of the poor never stole.
The Justices of the Peace usually deferred to the learned Justices of Assize for cases of felony, murder, rape, highway robbery, and witchcraft. Most homicides were the result of an impassioned argument leading to blows inflicted by nearby commonplace items picked up and used as weapons. Only 18% of homicides were within the family. Men were still declared outlaw if they failed to come to court after repeated summons.