Senator of the College of Justice


The Senators of the College of Justice are judges of the College of Justice, a set of legal institutions involved in the administration of justice in Scotland. There are three types of senator: Lords of Session ; Lords Commissioners of Justiciary ; and the Chairman of the Scottish Land Court. Whilst the High Court and Court of Session historically maintained separate judiciary, these are now one and the same, and the term, Senator, is almost exclusively used in referring to the judges of these courts.
Senators of the college use the title Lord or Lady along with a surname or a territorial name. Note, however, that some senators have a peerage title, which would be used instead of the senatorial title. All senators of the college have the honorific, The Honourable, before their titles, while those who are also privy counsellors or peers have the honorific, The Right Honourable. Senators are made privy counsellors upon promotion to the Inner House.
Under section 11 of the Treason Act 1708, it is treason to kill a Senator of the College of Justice "sitting in Judgment in the Exercise of their Office within Scotland".

History

In the past other officers of state were included as senators, including the Lord Advocate, Lord Clerk Register, Master of Requests and the Secretary of State.

List of senators

The Court of Session Act 1988, when enacted, limited the number of Senators of the College of Justice to 34. This was subsequently increased to 35 by The Maximum Number of Judges Order 2016, enacted by the Scottish Ministers.

Inner House

The Lord President is the president of the First Division, and the Lord Justice Clerk is the president of the Second Division. The puisne judges are limited to five assigned to each of those two divisions.
SenatorMandatory retirementInner House appointmentOuter House appointmentDivision
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Outer House

SenatorMandatory retirementAppointment
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20 PC
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
3413 January 2020
3513 January 2020
17 February 2020
6 April 2020

Retired judges

There are also some retired judges who still sit occasionally in the Court of Session or the Court of Criminal Appeal to hear cases if needed when there is a shortage of available judges. They are also called Senators of the College of Justice. As of 2019, nine retired judges are available to sit as judges:
SenatorBecomes ineligible to act as a judgeAppointmentRetirement
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
7