Circuit court

[2] It was long assumed that these circuits originated with the eyre in common pleas during the reign of Henry II, but during the late 1950s, legal historians such as Ralph Pugh recognized that the eyre's "connection with later circuit justices is rather collateral than lineal",[3] and the eyre was merely one of a number of experiments in "systematized itinerant justice" undertaken by the English crown during the late 12th century and the 13th century.

[3] The development of the assize circuits was interrupted in 1305 by the appointment of justices of trailbaston by King Edward I.

[4] Under King Edward III, two statutes were enacted in 1328 and 1330 which restored the assize circuits and reorganized the counties of England into six circuits where assizes were supposed to be held thrice yearly (but were more often held twice each year).

Eventually, the legal caseload in a county would become great enough to warrant the establishment of a local judiciary.

The Circuits also form the basis for administration of the Bar in England and Wales except for Cheshire.

Until 2007 for court administration purposes it formed part of the Wales and Chester Circuit.

The Circuit Court is so-called because of the circuits on which its judges travel, namely Dublin, Cork, Northern, Western, Eastern, South Western, South Eastern, and Midland, each of which are composed of a number of counties.

In the United States, circuit courts were first established in the Thirteen British Colonies.

Under the original Judiciary Act of 1789 and subsequent acts, the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C. had the responsibility of "riding circuit" and personally hearing both appeals and trials in the circuit courts, in addition to their caseload back in the capital.

This duty was reasonable when the United States consisted of the original Thirteen Colonies along the East Coast of the United States, but became increasingly onerous and impractical with the country's rapid westward expansion during the 19th century, and was repealed by Congress with the enacting of the Judiciary Act of 1891.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices still retain vestiges of the days of riding circuit; each justice is designated to hear certain interlocutory appeals from specific circuits and can unilaterally decide them or refer them to the entire court.

Among the states with circuit-riding supreme courts are Alaska, California, Idaho, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.