Vice-Chancellor (UK legal system)

The Chancellor of the High Court is the head of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. Before October 2005, when certain provisions of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 took effect, the office was known as the Vice-Chancellor. He nominally acted as the Lord Chancellor's deputy in the English legal system; however, he was in effect the head of the Chancery Division. Despite the change of title, the duties of the office did not change.

From 1813 to 1875, puisne judges of the Court of Chancery were also called Vice-Chancellors.

A similar position existed in Ireland between 1867 and 1904 when the office was abolished; surprisingly throughout that period it was held by one man, Hedges Eyre Chatterton.

Because of an increased in case load in the Court of Chancery for its two judges (the Lord Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls), an additional judicial office, called the Vice-Chancellor of England, was created by the Administration of Justice Act 1813 to share the work. With the transfer of the equity jurisdiction to the Court of Chancery from the Court of Exchequer, two more such posts were added in 1841 by the Chancery Act 1841, with the caveat that no successor for the second of the two new judges (James Wigram) could be appointed. After Lancelot Shadwell (the Vice-Chancellor of England at the time the bill came into effect) left office, the three Vice-Chancellors were to be of equal status, with the "of England" dropped. In 1851, the law was changed so that a successor to Wigram could be named (George Turner), but again with the caveat that no future successor could be appointed. This restriction was lifted by section 52 of the Master in Chancery Abolition Act 1852.

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