Master (judiciary)

A Master is judicial officer found in the courts of England and in numerous other jurisdictions based on the common law tradition. A master's jurisdiction is generally confined to civil proceedings and is a subset of that of a judge. Masters are typically involved in hearing motions, case management, dispute resolution or adjudication of specific issues referred by judges. Their functions would otherwise fall to the judges of the court.

Besides the courts of England & Wales, masters may be found in the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, several Caribbean countries and a number of Canadian provinces. Several state courts in the United States utilize masters or similar officers and also make extensive use of special masters.

Judicial officials exercising a master's jurisdiction are in some jurisdictions referred to as Registrars and Deputy Registrars.

The role of a Master in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales is concerned primarily with procedural matters such as applications, motions and case management. There are masters in both the Queen's Bench and Chancery Divisions and their roles differ slightly.

Such a person is known professionally as, for example, "Master Smith". This is so whether the Master is male or female. A similar type of Master exists in the Court system of Northern Ireland, in several Canadian and Australian jurisdictions as well as in other countries whose court system is based on that of England.

The office of Master is of ancient origins dating from at least the 12th century. Originally part of the mechanism of the court of Chancery, masters were retained and their functions merged with similar officers in the common law courts when courts of law and equity were fused in the late 19th century. There are masters in the Chancery and Queen's Bench divisions of the High Court of Justice. The Senior Master of the Queen's Bench Division also bears the title of Queen's Remembrancer which is one of the oldest judicial offices in England.

In the Inns of Court, the members of the governing body are known as "Masters of the Bench" or, more commonly, "benchers". In the context of the functions they perform in that capacity (but not otherwise) they will be known as, for example, "Master Smith" (whether they are male or female). This will be so even if in other contexts they use a higher title: hence, a High Court Judge who is a Master of the Bench will be known in his or her Inn as "Master Smith", in private life as Sir John Smith, and on the bench as Mr Justice Smith; likewise a law lord will be known in the inn as "Master Woolf" even if he is privately and professionally known by the peerage title of "Lord Woolf".

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