Judge royal
The judge royal, also justiciar, chief justice or Lord Chief Justice (German: Oberster Landesrichter, Hungarian: országbíró, Slovak: krajinský sudca or dvorský sudca, Latin: curialis comes or iudex curiae regiae), was the second-highest judge, preceded only by the palatine, in the Kingdom of Hungary between around 1127 and 1884. After 1884, the judge royal was only a symbolic function, but it was only in 1918 — with the end of Habsburgs in the Kingdom of Hungary (the kingdom continued formally until 1946) — that the function ceased officially.
| Judge Royal of the Kingdom of Hungary | |
|---|---|
| Appointer | King of Hungary Diet of Hungary |
| Precursor | Some functions of Palatine |
| Formation | c. 1127 |
| First holder | George |
| Final holder | Aurél Dessewffy |
| Abolished | 1918 (1884) |
| Succession | President of the Curia Regia |
| Part of a series on |
| Great Officers of State in the Kingdom of Hungary |
|---|
|
| Kingdom of Hungary |
There remain significant problems in the translation of the title of this officer. In Latin, the title translates as 'Judge of the Royal Court', which lacks specificity. In Hungarian, he is 'Judge of the Country', with 'country' in this sense meaning 'political community', being thus broadly analogous to the German 'Land'. English has no obvious translation for Landesrichter, which is the direct German translation of országbíró.