The Court of Criminal Appeal () was an

appellate court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...

for criminal cases in the law of the Republic of Ireland. It existed from 1924 until 2014, when it was superseded by the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

, which can hear appeals for all types of case.

Operation

The Court of Criminal Appeal heard appeals for

indictable offence In many common law jurisdictions (e.g. England and Wales, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore), an indictable offence is an offence which can only be tried on an indictment after a preliminary hearing ...

s tried in the Circuit Court, the Central Criminal Court, and the Special Criminal Court. The Court sat in a division of three, with one

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

judge and two High Court judges. The court could hear appeals by a

defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one juris ...

against

conviction In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is Guilty (law), guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a ...

, sentence or both. Leave to appeal was only given where there was a disagreement on a point of law, although an exception can be made when new evidence becomes available which could not have been presented before the original court. The Director of Public Prosecutions could also appeal against a sentence on the grounds that it was unduly lenient. A further appeal to the Supreme Court only lay when the Court of Criminal Appeal itself or the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

certified that a point of law of exceptional public importance needed to be resolved.

History

Before independence

The Crown Cases Act 1848 ( 11 & 12 Vict. c. 78) established a Court for Crown Cases Reserved in each of

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

and Ireland. These courts were sometimes called the "Court of Criminal Appeal", but only heard point of law appeals. In England and Wales, a Court of Criminal Appeal was established in 1907, but in Ireland the 1848 court remained in operation. A Court of Criminal Appeal was temporarily established during the Irish Land War by the Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Act, 1882. This comprised the judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature except for the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The 1882 Act expired after three years.

After independence

The Courts of Justice Act 1924 established a new court system under the terms of the 1922 Constitution of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

. These included a new Supreme Court and High Court, and a Court of Criminal Appeal comprising judges of those two courts. The courts were re-established in 1961 under the terms of the current (1937) Constitution. The Court of Criminal Appeal was replaced on 5 November 2014 by the Court of Appeal, as mandated by the 33rd Amendment of the Constitution passed in 2013. The Court of Appeal has taken on all hearings of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the Courts-Martial Appeal Court, as well as many backlogged Supreme Court cases.

References

{{reflist

External links

Court of Criminal Appeal – Courts Service of Ireland

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Courts of the Republic of Ireland 1924 establishments in Ireland 2014 disestablishments in Ireland Courts and tribunals established in 1924 Courts and tribunals disestablished in 2014