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A judge's bench in a courtroom in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia. The term "bench" is also used as a metonymy to mean all the judges of a certain court or members of a judiciary.

Bench in legal contexts means simply the location in a courtroom where a judge sits. The historical roots of that meaning come from the fact that judges formerly sat on long seats or benches (freestanding or against a wall) when presiding over a court. ^[1] In modern courtrooms, the bench is usually an elevated desk area that allows a judge to view the entire courtroom (see photo at right).

But the word also has a broader meaning in the law - the term "bench" is a metonymy 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 Great Britain, or the federal bench in the United States.^[1] 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").^[2] 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.^[1]

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^ ^a ^b ^c Walker, David (1980), Oxford Companion to Law, Oxford University Press, p. 123, ISBN 019866110X, http://books.google.com/books?id=4GgYAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1
^ Black, Henry Campbell (1990). Black's Law Dictionary, 6th ed.. St. Paul, MN.: West Publishing. pp. p. 155. ISBN 031476271x.

[Walker-0] Walker, David (1980), Oxford Companion to Law, Oxford University Press, p. 123, ISBN 019866110X, http://books.google.com/books?id=4GgYAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1

[1] Black, Henry Campbell (1990). Black's Law Dictionary, 6th ed.. St. Paul, MN.: West Publishing. pp. p. 155. ISBN 031476271x.

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