acquittals for serious offences, i.e. specified offences which
carry a maximum life sentence such as murder and rape,
which are judged to have a particular serious impact
either on the victim or society generally. New and com-
pelling evidence against the accused must have come to
light since the trial. The prosecution must obtain the con-
sent of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) before
taking significant steps in re-opening investigations and
in making an application to the Court of Appeal.
3 References by the Criminal Cases Review Commis-
sion.The Criminal Appeals Act 1995 established an
independent body to investigate and, where appropriate,
refer to the Court of Appeal cases involving possible
wrongful conviction or sentence. The Criminal Cases
Review Commission, which started work in April 1997,
consists of 14 Commissioners. One-third of the com-
missioners must be legally qualified and the remaining
two-thirds must have knowledge of some aspect of the
criminal justice system. The Commission may only refer
a case to the Court of Appeal if a new issue by way of
argument or evidence is raised and there is a ‘real possib-
ility’ that the conviction, verdict, finding or sentence will
not be upheld.
House of Lords
The House of Lords is not only the second chamber of
our Parliament, but also acts as a final court of appeal in
both civil and criminal matters for both England and
Northern Ireland, and in civil matters for Scotland. The
judges are drawn from the Lord Chancellor, Lords of
Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lords) and peers who have
held or are holding high judicial office. A minimum of
three is required, but in practice five normally sit to hear
an appeal. Decisions are by majority judgment.
The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 replaces the
system of Law Lords sitting as an Appellate Committee
of the House of Lords with a Supreme Court. The
Supreme Court for the UK will consist of 12 members.
The current Law Lords will become the first justices of
the Supreme Court and will retain their membership
of the House of Lords. The Act provides for a new pro-
cedure for filling vacancies by a selection commission
consisting of the President and Deputy President of the
Supreme Court and members of the appointment bod-
ies for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
New judges will not become members of the House of
Lords, and will be known as Justices of the Supreme
Court. The new Supreme Court will be located in Middle-
sex Guildhall and is expected to open in 2009.Jurisdiction
The House of Lords hears the following criminal appeals:
1 Appeals from the Court of Appeal (Criminal
Division).
2 Appeals from the Divisional Court of the Queen’s
Bench Division.In both cases, either the prosecution
or defence may appeal, provided that a point of law of
general public importance is involved. Permission must
be obtained from the House of Lords or the Court of
Appeal or the Divisional Court, as appropriate.Civil courts
Reform of civil litigationIn 1994 the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay, invited
Lord Woolf to undertake a review of the rules and
procedures of the civil courts in England and Wales.
Lord Woolf produced an interim report in 1995 and his
final report, Access to Justice, in July 1996. Lord Woolf
identified the following problems with the civil justice
system:■a lack of equality between wealthy powerful litigants
and their under-resourced opponents;
■the system was too expensive, the costs of bringing a
case often exceeding the value of the claim;
■it was difficult to estimate how long the litigation
would last and how much it would cost;
■the system was very slow;
■civil procedure was too complicated;
■the system was fragmented; no one had overall
responsibility for the administration of civil justice;
■the system was too adversarial; the parties set the pace
of litigation, rather than the courts.Some of the proposals in Lord Woolf ’s interim report
were implemented before the publication of the final
report. The financial limit for small claims cases was
increased from £1,000 to £3,000 (except for personal
injury cases) from January 1996 (since then the limit has
been raised again to £5,000).
The main changes recommended in Lord Woolf ’s
final report were given effect by the Civil Procedure ActPart 1Introduction to law