Saturday, November 24, 2007

Chief justiceChief justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Canada, the Supreme Court of India, the Supreme Court of Ireland, the Supreme Court of New Zealand, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (Mexico), or provincial or state supreme courts. In England and Wales and Northern Ireland, the equivalent position is the Lord Chief Justice and in Scotland the equivalent is the Lord President of the Court of Session.
There can also be a chief justice in the highest court of a constitutive state or even a territory, as it was formerly in Dakota, New Mexico and Oregon in the U.S.
The Chief Justice can be appointed to the post in a variety of different ways, but in many nations the presiding position is commonly given to the senior-most justice in 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; the title of this top American jurist, often incorrectly said to be "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court", is actually Chief Justice of the United States, by statute.
In some states the Chief Justice has another title, e.g. president of the Supreme Court. In other cases the title of Chief Justice is used, but the court has another name, e.g. the Supreme Court of Judicature in colonial (British) Ceylon, the Court of Appeals in Maryland.

List of Chief Justice positions

Associate justice
Puisne judge

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