The Special Judges of the County Courts

The Model for the Hungarian Jury Court(?)

Abstract

The present study summarizes the system of late feudal local courts in the Hungarian counties with special regard to the men called judices tabulae (justices of the bench) who were extraordinary judges on the county tribunals or on the local criminal courts headed by the vice prefect. Their participation in jurisdiction was important as they were official witnesses or assessors of the court sedria, in this case they were mostly noble layman, but those who were qualified to be lawyers of the age could be given special mandates to act as deputy judges and to take formal legal actions themselves. As laymen these gentlemen were a bit similar to jurors known from the Western European states as it was emphasized on the sessions of the Hungarian feudal Parliament during the debate of the Bill of Criminal Procedure of 1843.