The Text

The electors of the several towns shall, at their biennial town elections, of at such other time and in such manner as the legislature may direct, elect justices of the peace, whose term of office shall be four years. A person appointed to fill a vacancy in the office of justice of the peace shall hold office until the commencement of the calendar year next succeeding the first town election at which the vacancy may he filled or a successor elected. In case of an election to fill a vacancy occurring before the expiration of a full term, the elected justice shall hold for the remainder of the unexpired term. The number, classification and duties of justices of the peace shall be regulated by law. Inferior local courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction may be established by the legislature. All inferior local courts now or hereafter established may be regulated or discontinued by the legislature; provided, however, that the compensation of a judge or justice of such a court, except that of a justice of the peace, shall not be diminished during his term of office, nor shall the office of any judge or justice of such a court he abolished or the term thereof diminished so as to abridge the term of any judge or justice then in office, unless the court of which such judge or justice is a member is abolished simultaneously. No one shall hereafter be eligible to the office of judge or justice of such a court unless he be an attorney and counselor at law of this state, except that this requirement shall not apply to the office of justice of the peace or police justice. No person shall hold the office of judge or justice of any such court except the office of justice of the peace or police justice longer than until and including the last day of December next after he shall be seventy years of age, except that a judge or justice in office or elected or appointed to office at the effective date of this article, as to whom no provision limiting his right to hold office to the close of the year following his attaining the age of seventy years was applicable prior to the effective date of this article, may continue in office during the term for which he was elected or appointed.
The powers or duties in criminal or civil matters now exercised by justices of the peace may be transferred by law to inferior local courts.
The legislature shall not hereafter confer upon any inferior or local court of its creation any equity jurisdiction or any greater jurisdiction in other respects than is conferred upon county courts by or under this article; hut it may provide that the territorial jurisdiction in civil cases of any inferior or local court now existing or hereafter established in any city, or of justices of the peace in cities, shall extend throughout the county or counties in which such city may be located. Courts of special sessions and inferior local courts of similar character shall have such jurisdiction of offences of the grade of misdemeanors as may be prescribed by law, and the legislature may authorize them to try such offenses without a jury.
All judicial officers in cities, whose election or appointment is not otherwise provided for in this article, shall be chosen by the electors of such cities, or appointed by some local authorities thereof as may be prescribed by law. The boards of supervisors, or other officials exercising power now vested in such boards, may fix the compensation to be paid or allowed to justices of the peace for their services in criminal matters.