Circuit (subnational entity)

Circuits in the common law

In law, a circuit is an appellate judicial district commonly seen in the court systems of many nations. The term (as traditionally used among English-speaking lawyers) comes from an era in which judges would ride around the countryside each year on preset paths to hear cases.

History

For much of the history of Western civilization, most people were illiterate and competent lawyers and judges were always in short supply relative to the demands for their services.

As England emerged from the Dark Ages, the king gradually hit upon the solution of making the judges ride around the countryside or "ride circuit" each year to hear appeals, rather than forcing everyone to bring their appeals to London. For more information, see the article on assizes.

United States

Since most of the original 13 colonies were largely settled by the English, it was natural that they would bring their idea of judicial circuits with them.

Under the original Judiciary Act of 1790 and subsequent acts, the U.S. Supreme Court justices themselves had the responsibility of "riding circuit" and personally hearing intermediate appeals (in addition to their caseload back in Washington). This onerous duty was abolished by Congress in 1891.

Today, there is a federal Court of Appeals that sits permanently in each appellate circuit. The smaller circuits (like the Second and Third) are based at a single federal courthouse. In contrast, the huge Ninth Circuit is spread across many courthouses. Since three-judge federal appellate panels are randomly selected from all sitting circuit judges, Ninth Circuit judges must often "ride the circuit," though this duty has become much easier to carry out since the development of modern air travel.

The U.S. Supreme Court justices still retain vestiges of their old powers from 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. Also, the Court's customary summer recess originated as the time during which the justices would leave Washington and ride circuit (since dirt roads were more passable in the summer).

Circuits in East Asia

Circuit (道 ; Chinese: dào; Japanese: dō) was a historical political division of China, and is still a Japanese one. In Korea, the same word (; do) is translated as "province."

There is another Chinese political division, the lù (), which is translated as "circuits" as well, because the dao and lu never coexisted. Both lu and dao literally mean "road/path".

China

Circuits originated in China in 627, when Emperor Taizong subdivided China into ten circuits. These were originally meant to be purely geographic and not administrative. Emperor Xuanzong further added five. Slowly the circuits strengthened their own power, until they became powerful regional forces that tore the country apart during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. During the Jinn and Song, circuits were renamed lu. Dao were revived during the Yuan Dynasty.

At first, circuits were the highest of the three-tier administrative system of China; the next two were prefectures or zhou () and counties (, also translated as "districts"). They are simultaneously inspection areas ( jian1 cha2 qu1). Circuits were demoted to the second-level after the Yuan Dynasty established provinces at the very top, and remained there for the next several centuries.

Circuits still existed as high-level, though not top-level, divisions of the Republic of China, such as Qiongya Circuit (now Hainan Province). In 1928, all circuits were replaced with committees or just completely abandoned.

Japan

During the pre-modern era, Japan was divided into seven routes encompassing the islands of Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu. The seven defunct routes spread all over the three islands:

Tōkaidō () "East Sea Route": 15 provinces (kuni)
Nankaidō () "South Sea Route": 6 provinces
Saikaidō () "West Sea Route": 8 provinces
Hokurikudō () "North Mainland Route": 7 provinces
San'indō () "Mountain-north Route": 8 provinces
San'yōdō () "Mountain-south Route": 8 provinces
Tōsandō () "East Mountain Route": 13 provinces

(For the mountain south-north reference with in and yo, see Yin Yang.)

In the mid-1800's, the northern island of Ezo was settled, and renamed Hokkaido ("North Sea Route"). However, Hokkaido was never a "route" in the classical sense. It is essentially a prefecture with a different name from the other prefectures.

Korea

Since the late 10th century, the do (“province”) has been the primary administrative division in Korea. See Provinces of Korea, Subdivisions of South Korea and Administrative divisions of North Korea for details.

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