A sheriffdom is a judicial district in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, led by a

sheriff principal In Scotland a sheriff principal (''pl''. sheriffs principal) () is a judge in charge of a sheriffdom with judicial, quasi-judicial, and administrative responsibilities. Sheriffs principal have been part of the judiciary of Scotland since the ...

. Since 1 January 1975, there have been six sheriffdoms. Each sheriffdom is divided into a series of

sheriff court A sheriff court () is the principal local civil and criminal court in Scotland, with exclusive jurisdiction over all civil cases with a monetary value up to , and with the jurisdiction to hear any criminal case except treason, murder, and ra ...

districts, and each sheriff court is presided over by a resident or floating sheriff (a legally qualified judge). Sheriffs principal and resident or floating sheriffs are all members of the judiciary of Scotland.

History

Before 1975

Sheriffdoms were originally identical to the

shires of Scotland The counties or shires of Scotland () were historic subdivisions of Scotland. The shires were originally established in the Middle Ages for judicial purposes, being territories over which a Sheriff principal, sheriff had jurisdiction. They wer ...

, originating in the twelfth century. Until the eighteenth century the office of sheriff was often hereditary, but this was ended following the unsuccessful Jacobite Rising of 1745. The Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 ( 20 Geo. 2. c. 43) revested the government of the shires in the Crown, compensating those office holders who were displaced. The Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747 ( 21 Geo. 2. c. 19) reduced the office of sheriff principal to a largely ceremonial one, with a sheriff depute or sheriff substitute appointed to each "county, shire or stewartry". The sheriff deputes, who were paid a salary by the Crown, were qualified advocates and took charge of sheriff courts. By the nineteenth century, the office of sheriff principal was an additional title held by the lord lieutenant of the county, and the Circuit Courts (Scotland) Act 1828 ( 9 Geo. 4. c. 29) redesignated sheriff deputes as simply "sheriffs". The Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 also began the grouping of two or more counties under a single sheriffdom. This process continued so that by 1975 there were 12 sheriffdoms with only the county of

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark (; ), is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and registration county in the Central Lowlands and Southern Uplands of Scotland. The county is no l ...

not combined.

Since 1975

New boundaries defined sheriffdoms in reference to regions, districts and islands areas which were then to be created on 16 May 1975. This reduced the number of sheriffdoms to six. The sheriffdoms were redefined again with effect from 1 April 1996, when new

local government areas A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a state, province, division, or territory. The ph ...

were created. The boundaries of four sheriffdoms were unchanged. The boundaries of the other two were altered, so as to transfer an area around Chryston from the sheriffdom of Glasgow and Strathkelvin to the sheriffdom of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway. Elsewhere boundaries were simply redefined by reference to new local authority areas and electoral wards.Explanatory note, The Sheriffdoms (Alteration of Boundaries) Order 1996
/ref> Each sheriffdom has a full-time

. Sheriffdoms are divided into sheriff court districts, each with one or more

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

Notes and references

{{UK subdivisions * Scots law Administrative divisions of Scotland