BENCH
BENCH. Latin Bancus, used for tribunal. In England there are two courts to which this word is applied. Bancus Regius, King's Bench Bancus Communis, Com- mon Bench or Pleas. The jus banci, says Spelman, properly belongs to the king's judges, who administer justice in the last resort. The judges of the inferior courts, as of the barons, are deemed to, judge plano pede, and are such as are called in the civil law pedanei judices, or by the Greeks Xauaidixastai, that is, humi judicantes. The Greeks called the seats of their higher judges Bumata, and of their inferior judges Bathra. The Romans used the word sellae and tribunalia, to designate the seats of their higher judges, and subsellia, to designate those of the lower. See Spelman's Gloss. (ad verb.) Bancus; also, 1 Reeves Hist. Eng. Law, 40, 4to ed., and postea Curia Regis.