What is "star chamber"

Star chamber \Star" cham`ber\, Star-chamber \Star"-cham`ber\(st[aum]r"ch[=a]m`b[~e]r), n. [So called (as conjectured by Blackstone) from being held in a room at the Exchequer where the chests containing certain Jewish contracts and obligations called starrs (from the Heb. shetar, pron. shtar) were kept; or from the stars with which the ceiling is supposed to have been decorated.]

1. (Eng. Hist.) An ancient high court exercising jurisdiction in certain cases, mainly criminal, which sat without the intervention of a jury. It consisted of the king's council, or of the privy council only with the addition of certain judges. It could proceed on mere rumor or examine witnesses; it could apply torture. It was abolished by the Long Parliament in 1641.
   --Encyc. Brit.

2. Hence: (Metaphorical) Any court, committee, or other tribunal which exercises arbitrary and unaccountable power, or uses unfair or illegal methods, in investigation or judgment of persons.

late 14c., apartment in the royal palace at Westminster in which members of the king's council sat to exercise jurisdiction 14-15c., it evolved 15c. into a court of criminal jurisdiction, infamous under James I and Charles I for arbitrary and oppressive proceedings. Abolished 1641. Supposedly so called because gilt stars had been painted on the ceiling. Later there was a star on the door.

n. (context pejorative English) a legal or administrative body with strict, arbitrary rulings and secretive proceedings

The Star Chamber ( Latin: Camera stellata) was an English court of law which sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late 15th century to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Councillors and common-law judges, to supplement the judicial activities of the common-law and equity courts in civil and criminal matters. The Star Chamber was established to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against socially and politically prominent people so powerful that ordinary courts would likely hesitate to convict them of their crimes.

In modern usage, legal or administrative bodies with strict, arbitrary rulings and secretive proceedings are sometimes called, metaphorically or poetically, star chambers. This is a pejorative term and intended to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the proceedings. 'Star Chamber' can also be used in its original meaning, for instance when a politician uses parliamentary privilege to attack a powerful organisation or person.

The Star Chamber was a notorious English court of law.

Star Chamber may also refer to:

• Star Chamber (play), a 1936 play by Noël Coward
• The Star Chamber, a 1983 thriller film starring Michael Douglas
• Star Chamber: The Harbinger Saga, an online collectible card game
• Star chamber, a slang U.S. military term for the "barrel extension", the part of the upper receiver of the M-16 and M-4 into which the bolt and bullet go. It is so named because it is an acorn-sized void resembling an asterisk, and is infamous among service members for being notoriously difficult to rid of accumulated carbon without a power drill and an attached metal brush.

Star Chamber is a one-act play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed in alternating groups of three plays, across three evenings. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if, by careful writing, acting and producing I can do a little towards reinstating it in its rightful pride, I shall have achieved one of my more sentimental ambitions."

Star Chamber concerns a charity committee meeting among various actors around a table. The play was first performed in London on 21 March 1936. It received only one performance in the original run. However, it has been included in some revivals of the cycle.