§ MR. A. ELLIOT (Roxburgh)I beg to ask the Lord Advocate whether it is competent, under the Licensing Acts or otherwise, to Burgh Magistrates, who have decided to grant or refuse a licence, to sit and vote at Quarter Sessions on an appeal from their own decision?
§ *THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR SCOTLAND (Sir C. PEARSON,) Edinburgh and St. Andrew's UniversitiesOn behalf of my right hon. Friend the Lord Advocate I have to say I have to inform my hon. Friend that there does not appear to be any statutory prohibition against Magistrates sitting and voting in Quarter Sessions in these cases, and I am informed as a matter of fact that they are in the habit of doing so. The matter is thus stated in Barclay's Digest:—
There appears no legal exclusion of a Justice sitting in Quarter Sessions and voting in review of his own judgment, but there is an obvious impropriety which ought to prevent this unless it be to rectify an erroneous judgment he may have given.