Reports

Working Group on a Court of Appeal

Report of the Working Group on a Court of Appeal.pdf
Executive Summary of Report of the Working Group on a Court of Appeal.pdf

Quotations from the Report of the Working Group on a Court of Appeal

• In 1961 there were seven High Courts from which appeals lay to the Supreme Court. Today there are 36 High Courts from which appeals lie to the Supreme Court.
  
  
• The increase in the number of High Court judges has improved the capacity of the court system to process cases at that level.
  
  
• The High Court has grown from seven judges in 1971 to 36 in 2007 and remains at that figure today. There has not been a proportionate development in the Supreme Court, which in 1961 consisted of five judges and today consists of eight. Yet the Supreme Court is receiving all appeals from an expanded High Court.
  
  
• Delays in the current court system place Ireland at risk of breaching a number of international obligations.
  
  
• The caseload of the High Court exhibits the increased volume of litigation, its complexity, its specialisation, and its length. In 2007 there was a 26% increase on 2006 in cases commenced in the High Court.
  
  
• The court structure has not developed in a manner that can provide an efficient appeals process from High Court decisions.
  
  
• The Commercial Court has been very effective in ensuring the speedy resolution of commercial cases at the trial stage.
  
  
• The positive impact of the establishment of the Commercial Court on the procedural reforms can be frustrated by long waiting lists for appeals to the Supreme Court.
  
  
• The number of written decisions of the High Court has more than doubled in the five years from 2000 to 2005.
  
  
• The number, duration and complexity of appeals is growing.
  
  
• The existence of an automatic right of appeal from the High Court to the Supreme Court in many cases means that the court of final appeal is dealing with a large volume of cases.
  
  
• Many of the cases appealed to the Supreme Court under the current system would be more appropriately dealt with by an intermediate appellate court.
  
  
• The nature and character of the Court's caseload is increasingly unsustainable.
  
  
• The Court of Criminal Appeal is a useful example of an intermediate appellate court in Ireland. It removes a large number of appeals from the caseload of the Supreme Court, which allows the Supreme Court to concentrate on the small number of criminal appeals each year which raise issues of exceptional public importance. This proves the value of an intermediate appellate court.
  
  
• The Irish legal system needs additional appellate capacity.
  
  
• The amendment of Article 34 is an essential constitutional reform to create a Court of Appeal.
  
  
• The use of a single permissive amendment would not make clear the role of the Court of Appeal.
  
  
• A more detailed amendment of Article 34 would make the role of the Court of Appeal clear.
  
  
• As well as constitutional amendment, the introduction of a new Court of Appeal would require significant statutory reform and changes to the Rules of the Superior Courts.
  
  
• The establishment of a Court of Appeal is a necessary infrastructural reform which would have a transformative effect on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Irish court system.''