appellate court

The tribunals described thus far are trial courts or “courts of first instance.” They see the parties to the dispute, hear the witnesses, receive the evidence, find the facts, apply the law, and determine the outcome.

…also is issued by an appellate court to obtain information on a case pending before it. The writ of certiorari was at first an original writ from England’s Court of Queen’s Bench to the judges of inferior courts ordering them to present certain records. Certiorari was later expanded to include…

In general, appeal courts are concerned only with the legality of conviction, not with matters of sentence, and the supreme courts only with points of law. Normally, only the defense can appeal, but sometimes the prosecution too can appeal either against the original finding and sentence of…

In general, appellate courts in civil-law systems exercise broad supervisory authority over lower court rulings. Appeals to intermediate appellate courts from courts of first instance are available quite broadly in civil-law systems, frequently for all judgments exceeding a certain amount and at times for certain types of…

…established an elaborate system of appellate procedure, proceeding from Magistrate’s Courts all the way to the House of Lords, the highest court of England until 2009, when it was replaced in that capacity by the Supreme Court. Extraordinary remedies available in English procedure include the writ of habeas corpus (determining…