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23 Temp. L.Q. 167 (1949-1950)
Functioning under the 1947 Constitution of New Jersey

handle is hein.journals/temple23 and id is 189 raw text is: TEMPLE LAW QUARTERLY VOLUME 23 JANUARY, 1950 No. 3 FUNCTIONING UNDER THE 1947 CONSTITUTION OF NEW JERSEY By HONORABLE ALBERT E. BURLING Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey With the close of the first year of operation of the courts of New Jersey under the Constitution of 1947, it is seasonable to assess the effects of the transition and to narrate its advantages. While details of practice and procedure are of interest mainly to New Jersey students and lawyers, it is believed that an account of some of the more salient features thus evolved may be of interest to others. The impetus for procedural reform which culminated in the present system had its origin in the difficulties encountered under the former judicial framework. Possibly a proper appreciation of the welcomed permutation wrought by the new Constitution can best be effectuated through the medium of a brief resume of the former con- stitutional system of courts. It had remained substantially unchanged for more than a century, during which time efforts toward constitu- tional revision were unsuccessful until 1947. Under the Constitution of 1844, the judicial power was vested in a Court of Errors and Appeals, a Court for the trial of Impeach- ments; a Court of Chancery; a Prerogative Court; a Supreme Court; Circuit Courts, and such inferior Courts as now exist; and as may be hereafter ordained and established by law; which Inferior Courts the Legislature may alter or abolish, as the public good shall require. I The Court of Errors and Appeals was the Court of last resort. It was unique in that it was composed of the nine justices of the former Supreme Court, the Chancellor and six judges specially appointed, mak- ing a total of sixteen judges. We are told that the purpose of the six specially appointed judges was to have lay representation in order that the strictness of the legalistic mind might be tempered.2 While the so-called lay judges were usually, in later years, lawyers, in some 1. N. J. CONST., Art. VI, § 1, 1 (1844). 2. See PROCEEDINGS NEW JERSEY CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 461-474 (1844). (167)

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