Jurisdiction of Local Bet Din

> So, here are my questions:
> What kind of cases must be passed up and cannot be tried by the lowest
> court?
> What kind of enforcement powers does the lowest court have?
> If one disagrees with the lowest court ruling, is there an appeal
> process to a higher court?
> Who can serve on the lowest court?
> Who sets up the lowest court and how?
> What jurisdiction does the lowest court have in terms of geography?
> I'm assuming within a certain geographic area, there should only
> be one lowest court.

Answer from MORI:

All these matters are laid out in great detail in the Laws of Sanhedrin, and
this forum is hardly the place to answer such general questions, as the answer
would be HUGE and RMBM needs no restatement anyway.

An exception is the last question (whether there should be only one lowest
court), the answer is that there may be as many local 3-man courts as needed,
but they must all go by the same rules and customs (no division in customs in an
area is allowed; see Laws of Idol Worship 12,18 [14 Vilna]).

> > I say that the local court has (and had) no LEGISLATIVE power at all that I
can find in M"T (or in TN"K, for that matter). It is not just a matter of
customs but any kind of legislation is out of the scope of the local-court's
power.

> > If I am misreading M"T and TN"K, please come forward with chapter and verse
(TN"K) or chapter and paragraph (M"T) to show what I have missed!

> > Under RMBM's understanding of the Torah in M"T, the "Law" is fixed when
there is no Sanhedrin and there is no development in it nationally or locally,
but the 3-man courts can and should continue to administer the law and judge
individual cases that come before them as the Law was and is, but not try to
legislate. All the more so the individual Torah scholar sitting by himself.