High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A Justice of the Peace (JP) is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission (Letters Patent) to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions. Justices of the Peace are appointed or elected from the citizens of the jurisdiction in which they serve, and are (or were) usually not required to have a formal legal education in order to qualify for the office. Some jurisdictions have varying forms of training for JPs (for example Arizona, United States; Victoria, Australia; Canada and the United Kingdom).