Her Majesty's Court of Appeal is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords above it. A bar council in a Commonwealth country is a professional body that regulates the profession of barristers together with the Inns of Court. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Law Society of England and Wales is the professional association that represents the solicitors profession in England and Wales. ... A solicitor is a type of lawyer in many common law jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Republic of Ireland, Australia New Zealand and Canada, but not the United States (in the United States the word has a quite different meaning—see below). ... A Solicitor Advocate is a solicitor who is qualified to represent clients as an advocate in the higher courts in England and Wales or Scotland. ... Schematic of court system for England and Wales The United Kingdom does not have a single unified judicial system—England and Wales have one system, Scotland another, and Northern Ireland a third. ... The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, has a judicial function as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. ...

The Court is divided into two Divisions: the Civil Division and the Criminal Division. The Master of the Rolls presides over the Civil Division, while the Lord Chief Justice does the same in the Criminal Division. The other permanent judges of the Court of Appeal are known as Lords Justices of Appeal. The court hears appeals from the High Court and, in criminal matters, the Crown Court, although there are rights of appeal to it from other courts and tribunals. Permission to appeal may be required from the court below or from the Court of Appeal itself. The Master of the Rolls is the third most senior judge of England, the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain traditionally being first and the Lord Chief Justice second. ... The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales was, historically, the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor. ... Her Majestys High Court of Justice (usually known more simply as the High Court) is, together with the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal, part of the Supreme Court of England and Wales: see Courts of England and Wales. ... Crown Court and County Court in Oxford. ...

Three judges, sitting as a panel, normally hear an appeal in the Court of Appeal, reaching a decision by a majority. A single Lord Justice of Appeal may hear applications for permission to appeal.

Because the volume of cases which come to the Court of Appeal is higher than come to the House of Lords it has been said that the Master of the Rolls is the most influential judge in England. Certainly, the most famous judge in recent legal history, Lord Denning, was Master of the Rolls for many years, and played a major part in the development of the common law. The Right Honourable Alfred Thompson Denning, Baron Denning, OM, PC (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was a British barrister from Hampshire who became Master of the Rolls (the senior civil judge in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales) and was generally well liked, both within the legal... This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...

See List of Lords Justices of Appeal for the current members of the Court. The Lords Justices of Appeal (Judges of the Court of Appeal) of England and Wales: The Rt Hon. ...

Civil Division

The Civil Division is presided over by the Master of the Rolls. It hears most civil appeals from decisions of the High Court and many from County Courts, as well as from certain Tribunals (including: The Master of the Rolls is the third most senior judge of England, the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain traditionally being first and the Lord Chief Justice second. ... The County Court is the workhorse of the civil justice system in England and Wales. ...

• Employment Appeal Tribunal
• Lands Tribunal
• Asylum and Immigration Tribunal after a decision made by a three member tribunal.)

The Civil Division of the Court of Appeal was created by the Judicature Acts in 1875 as the Court of Appeal (criminal appeals being dealt with by the Court for Crown Cases Reserved). It merged the Court of Appeal in Chancery, a common law court of error (popularly known as a "court of appeal") and the appellate jurisdiction of the Privy Council in admiralty and ecclesiastical matters. Employment law is the branch of the law that deals with employment related issues. ... The Lands Tribunal was created by the Lands Tribunal Act 1949 and has juridsiction in England and Wales. ... The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal(AIT) is a tribunal constituted in the United Kingdom with jurisdiction to hear appeals from many immigration decisions. ... 1875 (MDCCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... England’s Court of Appeal in Chancery was created in 1851 to hear appeals of decisions made by the Vice Chancellors and the Master of the Rolls in Chancery Court. ... A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, especially in a monarchy. ...

Appeal from a decision of the Civil Division may be made to the House of Lords with permission of either court. The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, has a judicial function as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. ...

Criminal Division

The Criminal Division is presided over by the Lord Chief Justice and has jurisdiction over the following matters: The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales was, historically, the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor. ...

• Appeals by the defendant against conviction or sentence given at a trial on indictment in the Crown Court
• References by the Attorney-General under Section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1972:
  • on a point of law after an acquittal on indictment
  • against unduly lenient sentences
• Quashing tainted acquittals under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996
• Referrals by the Criminal Cases Review Commission of any conviction or sentence of any person tried in the Crown Court

Crown Court and County Court in Oxford. ... In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney General or Attorney-General is the main legal adviser to the government, and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions. ... In criminal law, an acquittal is the legal result of a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict of guilty being entered against the accused. ... The Criminal Cases Review Commission is the independent public body set up to investigate possible miscarriages of justice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. ...

Grounds for Appeal

The court of appeal may allow an appeal for three reasons:^[1]

• the conviction is unsafe or unsatisfactory
• there was a wrong decision on a question of law
• a material irregularity in the course of the trial

The court of appeal will only consider new evidence. Evidence heard at the original trial cannot be re-heard unlike the United States. Many other countries have an automatic right of appeal, which addresses the possibility that a jury may have come to a mistaken verdict. There is no such right in England and Wales.

History

The Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal is a successor to the Court for Crown Cases Reserved, which was established in 1848. A trial judge could chose to reserve a case for decision if he thought there was a matter of law which required fuller consideration. The Court for Crown Cases Reserved was an English appellate court for criminal cases established in 1848 to hear references from the trial judge. ... 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1907, the Court of Criminal Appeal was created to replace the Court for Crown Cases Reserved, consisting of the Lord Chief Justice and the judges of the King's Bench Division of the High Court. At this time a defendant was given the right of appeal. In 1966 the Court of Criminal Appeal became the current Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal. The Court of Criminal Appeal was an English appellate court for criminal cases established by the Judicature Act 1873. ...

Onward Appeal

Appeals from the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal may be made to the House of Lords. Such appeals require not only the permission of either court, but the Court of Appeal must also certify a question of general public importance to be decided by the House of Lords. This means that the Court of Appeal can control the cases which are appealed from it.

The certification of a question of general public importance does not necessarily mean that either court will give permission to appeal. For example, in R v Goodwin (on the question of whether a powered water craft is a ship), the Court of Appeal certified a number of questions but neither it nor the House of Lords gave permission to appeal.

External links

• Criminal Division home page
• Civil Division home page
• Conan Doyle and the Parson's son:The George Edaji Case - Cases which led to the setting up of the Court of Appeal