The Bailiff is the chief justice in each of the Channel Island bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey, also serving as president of the legislature and having ceremonial and executive functions.
After 1212, the King of England appointed a custodian to manage the Crown's affairs in the Channel Islands.
This has altered the executive functions of the bailiffs but they continue to have a residual executive role (for example, they see any correspondence between the chief minister of their island and the UK government and may be involved in any political decisions affecting the constitutional relationship between the islands and the United Kingdom).
Senior jurats may be appointed as lieutenant-bailiffs to perform some ceremonial duties in lieu of the bailiff on occasion as well as presiding over judicial proceedings generally of an administrative nature.
In 1617 a Privy Council decision clarified the division of civil and military responsibilities between the bailiffs and the lieutenant governors in Guernsey and Jersey.
For the first time, the Crown laid down the bailiff's precedence over the governor in judicial affairs and in the States chamber.
The position of bailiff was created shortly after the Treaty of Paris 1259 in which the King of England, Henry III, gave up claim to all of the Duchy of Normandy but the Channel Islands.