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(1) Subject to subsections (2), (3) and (4) below, the maximum number of judges of the Court of Session (hereinafter in this Act referred to as “the Court”) shall be 24.
(2) Her Majesty may by Order in Council from time to time amend subsection (1) above so as to increase or further increase the maximum number of persons who may be appointed as judges of the Court.
(3) No recommendation shall be made to Her Majesty in Council to make an Order under this section unless a draft of the Order has been laid before Parliament and approved by resolution of each House of Parliament.
(4) No vacancy arising among the judges of the Court shall be filled unless the Secretary of State, with the concurrence of the Treasury, is satisfied that the state of business in the Court requires that the vacancy should be filled.
(5) There shall be paid out of the Consolidated Fund any increase attributable to the provisions of this section in the sums which, under any other enactment, are payable out of that Fund.
The Court shall be composed of an Inner House and an Outer House constituted in accordance with the following provisions of this section.
(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, the Inner House shall be composed of two Divisions, namely, the First Division comprising the Lord President and three senior judges of the Court, and the Second Division comprising the Lord Justice Clerk and three other senior judges of the Court.
(3) The Lord President may from time to time direct any three judges of the Court to sit as an extra Division of the Inner House for the purpose of hearing and disposing of causes pending before the Inner House, and the senior judge present shall preside and shall sign any judgment or interlocutor pronounced by the extra Division; and any reference in this Act or in any other enactment to a Division of the Inner House shall be construed as including a reference to such an extra Division.
(4) The quorum for a Division of the Inner House shall be three judges.
(5) The Outer House shall be composed of the judges of the Court (other than the judges of the Inner House while they are sitting in the Inner House) sitting singly, and any reference in this Act or in any other enactment to a Lord Ordinary shall be construed as a reference to a judge sitting singly in the Outer House.
(6) Subject to subsection (7) below, a vacancy arising in a Division of the Inner House shall be filled by the appointment of the senior Lord Ordinary.
(7) Subsection (6) above shall not apply in the case of such a vacancy arising by reason of the death or resignation of the Lord President or the Lord Justice Clerk.
One of the judges of the Court who usually sits as a Lord Ordinary shall be appointed by the Court by act of sederunt to act as Lord Ordinary in exchequer causes, and no other judge shall so act unless and until such judge is appointed in his place:
Provided that, in the event of the absence or inability of the Lord Ordinary in exchequer causes for whatever reason, any of his duties may be performed by any other Lord Ordinary acting in his place.
(1) A judge of the Court shall not be incapable of acting as such in any proceedings by reason of being, as one of a class of ratepayers, taxpayers or persons of any other description, liable in common with others to pay, or contribute to, or benefit from, any rate or tax which may be increased, reduced or in any way affected by those proceedings.
(2) In this section “rate or tax” means any rate, tax, duty or assessment, whether public, general or local, and includes—
(a) any fund formed from the proceeds of any such rate, tax, duty or assessment; and
(b) any fund applicable for purposes the same as, or similar to, those for which the proceeds of any such rate, tax, duty or assessment are or might be applied.
The Court shall have power by act of sederunt—
(a) to regulate and prescribe the procedure and practice to be followed in various categories of causes in the Court or in execution or diligence following on such causes, whether originating in the said Court or brought there by way of appeal, removal, remit, stated case, or other like process, and any matters incidental or relating to any such procedure or practice including (but without prejudice to the foregoing generality) the manner in which, the time within which, and the conditions on which any interlocutor of a Lord Ordinary may be submitted to the review of the Inner House, or any application to the Court, or any thing required or authorised to be done in relation to any such causes as aforesaid shall or may be made or done;
(b) to prescribe the form of any summons, defence, petition, answer, writ, pleading, extract of a decree or other document whatsoever to be used in, or for the purposes of, any such causes as aforesaid, or in, or for the purposes of, execution or diligence following on such causes and the manner in which, and the person by whom, any such summons, petition, writ, pleading, extract of a decree or document shall be signed or authenticated;
(c) to prescribe the manner in which, the time within which, and the conditions on which any verdict of a jury may be submitted to the review of the Inner House on any ground set out in section 29 of this Act;
(d) to regulate the production and recovery of documents;
(e) to provide in any category of causes before the Court, for the admission in lieu of parole evidence of written statements (including affidavits) and reports, on such conditions as may be prescribed;
(f) to provide for the payment into Court and the investment or application of sums of money awarded in any action of damages in the Court to a pupil or a minor;
(g) to regulate the fees of solicitors practising before the Court (other than such fees as the Secretary of State may regulate under or by virtue of section 33 of the [1986 c. 47.] Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986);
(h) to regulate the expenses which may be awarded to parties in causes before the Court;
(i) to regulate the summoning, remuneration, and duties of assessors;
(j) to fix the ordinary sessions of the Court and to regulate the days on which and times at which the Court shall sit;
(k) to prescribe the matters with which the vacation judge may deal;
(l) to make such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act or of any Act conferring powers or imposing duties on the Court or relating to proceedings therein; and
(m) to modify, amend or repeal any provision of any enactment including this Act relating to matters with respect to which an act of sederunt may be made under this Act.
With a view to securing that causes coming before the Court may be heard and determined with as little delay as is possible, and to the simplifying of procedure and the reduction of expense in causes before the Court, the Court shall, in the exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 5 of this Act, provide by act of sederunt—
(i) for the classification of the causes brought into the Court according to the manner in which they are initiated, and for the institution of (a) an Ordinary Roll; (b) an Admiralty and Commercial Roll; and (c) a Consistorial Roll; and the assignment to the Consistorial Roll of all consistorial causes and to the Ordinary Roll or to the Admiralty and Commercial Roll of all other causes initiated by summons, according to the subject matter of such causes;
(ii) for the allocation of the causes before the Inner House among the Divisions thereof and of the causes before the Outer House among the Lords Ordinary;
(iii) for enabling the enforcement of a maritime lien over a ship by an action in rem directed against the ship and all persons interested therein without naming them and concluding for the sale of the ship and the application of the proceeds in extinction pro tanto of the lien, and for enabling arrestment of the ship on the dependence of such an action, and for the regulation of the procedure in any such action;
(iv) for enabling the inclusion, in any such action as is mentioned in paragraph (iii) above, of conclusions in personam against the registered owners of the vessel, whether their names are or are not known to the pursuer, and the granting of decree in any such action containing such conclusions against any compearing defender;
(v) for the inclusion in defences to any action of any counter claim arising out of the matters on which the action is based, to the effect of enabling such counter claim to be enforced without a separate action being raised;
(vi) for enabling trustees under any trust deed to obtain the direction of the Court on questions relating to the investment, distribution, management or administration of the trust estate, or the exercise of any power vested in, or the performance of any duty imposed on, the trustees notwithstanding that such direction may affect contingent interests in the trust estate, whether of persons in existence at, or of persons who may be born after, the date of the direction;
(vii) for enabling arrestment ad fundandam jurisdictionem to proceed on a warrant contained in the summons in like manner as arrestment on the dependence of the action.
The Court shall have power to regulate from time to time the fees which shall be payable to any accountant or person of skill to whom any remit is made in the course of any judicial proceedings before the Court.
(1) The Rules Council established under section 18 of the [1933 c. 41.] Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1933 shall continue and shall consist of the Lord President ex officio, two other judges of the Court to be appointed by the Lord President, five members of the Faculty of Advocates to be appointed by the Faculty, and five solicitors, of whom not less than two shall be solicitors practising before the Court, to be appointed by the Council of the Law Society of Scotland.
(2) The members of the Rules Council, other than the Lord President, shall, so long as they retain the respective qualifications set out in subsection (1) above, hold office for three years and be eligible for reappointment.
(3) Any vacancy in the membership of the Rules Council occurring by death, resignation, or other cause prior to the expiry of three years from the date of appointment of the member whose office is so vacated shall be filled by the appointment by the person or body by whom that member was appointed of another person possessing the same qualification:
Provided that any person appointed in pursuance of this subsection to fill a vacancy shall remain a member of the council only until the expiry of three years from the date of the appointment of the member whose office is so vacated.
(4) The Rules Council may from time to time frame rules regarding any of the matters relating to the Court, being matters which the court is empowered to regulate by act of sederunt, and shall submit any rules so framed to the Court, and the Court shall consider such rules and, if approved, embody them (with or without amendment) in an act of sederunt.
(5) At any meeting of the Rules Council seven members shall form a quorum.
Court of Session Act 1988