Criminal Appeals in a New Court
| DOI | 10.1177/002201836703100110 |
| Published date | 01 January 1967 |
| Date | 01 January 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Criminal
Appeals
in
aNew
Court
THE Court of Criminal Appeal lasted for 59 years,
the
same length of time as
the
effective life of its predeces-
sor,
the
Court for Crown Cases Reserved. Established by
the
Criminal Appeal Act of
1907,
the
Court of Criminal Appeal
"shall cease to exist", says
the
Criminal Appeal Act 1966
which, incidentally, at last formally repeals
the
Crown Cases
Act 1848.
The
Court's jurisdiction is now "exercisable by
the
Court of Appeal."
This
now consists of two divisions, namely,
(a) the civil division which, in substance, is
the
civil Court of
Appeal as known since
the
Judicature Act 1873,
and
(b)
the
criminal division (no capital letters as have
the
three Divisions
of the High Court) which exercises
the
jurisdiction transferred
from
the
Court of Criminal Appeal by s. Iof
the
Criminal
Appeal Act 1966.
The
Interdepartmental Committee on
the
Court of
Criminal appeal (1965, Cmnd. 2755)
under
the
chairmanship
of
Lord
Donovan reported
that
the
chief criticism of
the
con-
stitution of
the
Court of Criminal Appeal was
that
it lacked
the
status of what is called a
"real"
Court of Appeal; in other
words that, apart from
the
Lord Chief Justice, it was manned
by puisne judges who sat in judgment on their brother judges
but
had no higher status such as
that
of Lords Justices of
Appeal. But when in
1907
Parliament enacted
that
the
Court
should consist of judges who would, as regards appeals against
conviction and sentence at assize, be sitting in judgment on
their brothers of equal status, it introduced nothing novel into
the
legal system.
That
was the usual system of appeal
tribunals, such as
the
Court of Exchequer Chamber. As the
Committee says, if there were no other criticism of
the
con-
stitution of the Court, they would be compelled to conclude
that no case for altering
the
constitution had been made
out:
"No
doubt
the
image of
the
Court would, in
the
eyes of those
who recommend its fusion with
the
Court of Appeal, be
66
To continue reading
Request your trial