in a law sense, the place where judges distribute justice, or exercise jurisdiction: also the assembly of judges, jury, &c. in that place.

Courts are divided into superior and inferior, and into courts of record and safe courts: again, courts are either such as are held in the king's name, as all the ordinary courts; or where the precepts are issued in the name of the judge, as the admiral's court.

The superior courts are those of the king's-bench, the common-pleas, the exchequer, and the court of chancery. See King's-Bench, Common-Pleas, Exchequer, and Chancery.

A court of record is that which has a power to hold plea, according to the course of the common law, of real, personal, and mixt actions; where the debt or damage is forty shillings, or above, as the court of King's Bench, &c.

Court of admiralty. See Admiralty.

Court of arches. See Arches.

Court-baron, a court that every lord of a manor has within his own precincts. This court must be held by prescription, and is of two kinds, viz. by common law, and by custom: the former is where the barons or freeholders, being suitors, are the judges; the other is that where the lord, or his steward, is the judge.