A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordanc… See more

The word court comes from the French cour, an enclosed yard, which derives from the Latin form cōrtem, the accusative case of cohors, which again means an enclosed yard or the occupants of such a yard. The English wor… See more

The practical authority given to the court is known as its jurisdiction (from Latin iūrisdictiō, from iūris, "of the law", + dīcō, "to declare", + -tiō, noun-forming suffix), the court's power to decide certain kinds of questions o… See more