BENCH - The Court or the judges
collectively.
The place in a courtroom, usually raised, where the
judge sits. The furniture on which the judge sits
is called the bench. When something is done from the
bench, it means it was done by a trial judge.
Latin Bancus, used for tribunal. In England there
are two courts to which this word is applied. Bancus
Regius, King's Bench Bancus Communis, Common Bench
or Pleas. The jus banci properly belongs to the king's
judges, who administer justice in the last resort.
The judges of the inferior courts, as of the barons,
are deemed to, judge plano pede, and are such as are
called in the civil law pedanei judices, or by the
Greeks Xauaidixastai, that is, humi judicantes. The
Greeks called the seats of their higher judges Bumata,
and of their inferior judges Bathra. The Romans used
the word sellae and tribunalia, to designate the seats
of their higher judges, and subsellia, to designate
those of the lower.
