Bench (law)

Bench in legal contexts means simply the location in a courtroom where a judge sits. The historical roots of that meaning come from judges formerly having sat on long seats or benches (freestanding or against a wall) when presiding over a court. In modern courtrooms, the bench is usually an elevated desk area that allows a judge to view the entire courtroom.

The word also has a broader meaning in the law – the term "bench" is a metonym used to describe members of the judiciary collectively, or the judges of a particular court, such as the Queen's Bench or the Common Bench in England and Wales, or the federal bench in the United States. The term is also used when all the judges of a certain court sit together to decide a case, as in the phrase "before the full bench" (also called "en banc"). Additionally, the term is used to differentiate judges ("the bench") from attorneys or barristers ("the bar"). The phrase "bench and bar" denotes all judges and lawyers collectively.

See also

Canon law

Canon law is the body of laws and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (Church leadership), for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church (both Latin Church and Eastern Catholic Churches), the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the individual national churches within the Anglican Communion. The way that such church law is legislated, interpreted and at times adjudicated varies widely among these three bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a canon was originally a rule adopted by a church council; these canons formed the foundation of canon law.

Etymology

Greek kanon / Ancient Greek: κανών,Arabic Qanun / قانون, Hebrew kaneh / קנה, "straight"; a rule, code, standard, or measure; the root meaning in all these languages is "reed" (cf. the Romance-language ancestors of the English word "cane").

Canons of the Apostles

The Apostolic Canons or Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles is a collection of ancient ecclesiastical decrees (eighty-five in the Eastern, fifty in the Western Church) concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, incorporated with the Apostolic Constitutions which are part of the Ante-Nicene Fathers In the fourth century the First Council of Nicaea (325) calls canons the disciplinary measures of the Church: the term canon, κανὠν, means in Greek, a rule. There is a very early distinction between the rules enacted by the Church and the legislative measures taken by the State called leges, Latin for laws.

Law (band) (disambiguation)

Law (band) may refer to:

Law (surname)

Law is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Bench language

Bench (Bencnon, Shenon or Mernon, formerly called Gimira ) is a Northern Omotic language of the "Gimojan" subgroup, spoken by about 174,000 people (in 1998) in the Bench Maji Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, in southern Ethiopia, around the towns of Mizan Teferi and Shewa Gimira. It has three varieties: Benchnon, Shenon, and Mernon, which Blench (2006) considers to be distinct languages but which Rapold (2006) states are "...mutually intelligible...varieties of one and the same language".

In unusual variance from most of the other languages in Africa, Bench has retroflex consonant phonemes. The language is also noteworthy in that it has six phonemic tones, one of only a handful of languages in the world that have this many. Bench has a whistled form used primarily by male speakers, which permits communication over greater distances than spoken Bench. The whistle can be created using the lips or made from a hollow created with both hands. Additionally, this form of the language may be communicated via the 5-stringed krar.

Bench (furniture)

A bench is a piece of furniture, on which several people may sit at the same time. Benches are typically made of wood, but may also be made of metal, stone, or synthetic materials. Many benches have arm and back rests; some have no back rest and can be sat on from either side. In American public areas, benches are often donated by persons or associations, which may then be indicated on it, e.g. by a small plaque. Benches are used both outdoors and indoors.

Different types of benches

Often benches are simply named for the place they are used, regardless of whether this implies a specific design.

Bench (woreda)

Bench was one of the 77 woredas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. It was named for the Bench people, whose homeland lies in the northern part of the woreda. Part of the Bench Maji Zone, Bench was bordered on the south and east by Meinit, on the west by Sheko, and on the north by the Keficho Shekicho Zone. Towns in Bench included Aman and Mizan Teferi. Bench was divided for Debub Bench, Semien Bench and She Bench woredas and Mizan Aman town; southern part of Bench was added to Meinit Goldiya.

Rivers in Bench include the Akobo, which has its source in this woreda.

Demographics

Based on figures published by the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, this woreda has an estimated total population of 299,151, of whom 150,827 are men and 148,324 women; 25,483 or 8.52% of its population are urban dwellers, which is less than the Zone average of 9.1%. With an estimated area of 2,128.91 square kilometers, Bench has an estimated population density of 140.5 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 20.