What is "chief justice"

Chief justice \Chief" jus"tice\ The presiding justice, or principal judge, of a court.

Lord Chief Justice of England, The presiding judge of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. The highest judicial officer of the realm is the Lord High Chancellor.

Chief Justice of the United States, the presiding judge of the Supreme Court, and Highest judicial officer of the republic.

Justice \Jus"tice\ (j[u^]s"t[i^]s), n. [F., fr. L. justitia, fr. justus just. See Just, a.]

1. The quality of being just; conformity to the principles of righteousness and rectitude in all things; strict performance of moral obligations; practical conformity to human or divine law; integrity in the dealings of men with each other; rectitude; equity; uprightness.

   Justice and judgment are the haditation of thy throne.
   --Ps. ixxxix. 11.

   The king-becoming graces, As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, . . . I have no relish of them.
   --Shak.

2. Conformity to truth and reality in expressing opinions and in conduct; fair representation of facts respecting merit or demerit; honesty; fidelity; impartiality; as, the justice of a description or of a judgment; historical justice.

3. The rendering to every one his due or right; just treatment; requital of desert; merited reward or punishment; that which is due to one's conduct or motives.

   This even-handed justice Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice To our own lips.
   --Shak.

4. Agreeableness to right; equity; justness; as, the justice of a claim.

5. A person duly commissioned to hold courts, or to try and decide controversies and administer justice.

   Note: This title is given to the judges of the common law courts in England and in the United States, and extends to judicial officers and magistrates of every grade.

   Bed of justice. See under Bed.

   Chief justice. See in the Vocabulary.

   Justice of the peace (Law), a judicial officer or subordinate magistrate appointed for the conservation of the peace in a specified district, with other incidental powers specified in his commission. In the United States a justice of the peace has jurisdiction to adjudicate certain minor cases, commit offenders, officiate at marriages, etc.; abbreviated JP.

   Syn: Equity; law; right; rectitude; honesty; integrity; uprightness; fairness; impartiality.

   Usage: Justice, Equity, Law. Justice and equity are the same; but human laws, though designed to secure justice, are of necessity imperfect, and hence what is strictly legal is at times far from being equitable or just. Here a court of equity comes in to redress the grievances. It does so, as distinguished from courts of law; and as the latter are often styled courts of justice, some have fancied that there is in this case a conflict between justice and equity. The real conflict is against the working of the law; this a court of equity brings into accordance with the claims of justice. It would be an unfortunate use of language which should lead any one to imagine he might have justice on his side while practicing iniquity (inequity). Justice, Rectitude. Rectitude, in its widest sense, is one of the most comprehensive words in our language, denoting absolute conformity to the rule of right in principle and practice. Justice refers more especially to the carrying out of law, and has been considered by moralists as of three kinds: (1) Commutative justice, which gives every man his own property, including things pledged by promise. (2) Distributive justice, which gives every man his exact deserts. (3) General justice, which carries out all the ends of law, though not in every case through the precise channels of commutative or distributive justice; as we see often done by a parent or a ruler in his dealings with those who are subject to his control.

n. the judge who presides over a supreme court

The Chief Justice is the presiding member of a supreme court in any of many countries with a justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of Singapore, the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong, the Supreme Court of Japan, the Supreme Court of India, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Supreme Court of Nepal, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Supreme Court of Ireland, the Supreme Court of New Zealand, the High Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of the United States, and provincial or state supreme courts.

The situation is slightly different in the three legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom. The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales; in Northern Ireland's courts, the equivalent position is the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and in Scottish courts, the equivalent is the Lord President of the Court of Session. These three judges are not, though, part of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which operates across all three jurisdictions and is headed by the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

The Chief Justice can be selected in many ways, but, in many nations, the position is given to the most senior justice of the court, while, in the United States, it is often the President's most important political nomination, subject to approval by the United States Senate. Although the title of this top American jurist is, by statute, Chief Justice of the United States, the term "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" is often used unofficially.

In some courts, the Chief Justice has a different title, e.g. President of the Supreme Court. In other courts, the title of Chief Justice is used, but the court has a different name, e.g. the Supreme Court of Judicature in colonial (British) Ceylon, and the Maryland Court of Appeals (in the US state of Maryland).