Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition of ‘The Machinery of Justice in England’
- Abbreviations
- I Historical introduction
- II Civil jurisdiction
- III Tribunals
- IV Criminal jurisdiction
- 19 Courts with original criminal jurisdiction
- 20 Coroners' Courts
- 21 Courts with appellate criminal jurisdiction
- 22 The process of prosecution
- 23 Criminal procedure
- 24 The process of sentencing (including probation)
- 25 Juvenile courts
- 26 The matrimonial jurisdiction of magistrates – the Domestic Court
- V The personnel of the law
- VI The European dimension
- VII The cost of the law
- VIII Law Reform
- Appendix A The Report of the Civil Justice Review
- Table of Cases cited
- Table of Statutes cited
- Table of Stationery Office publications cited
- Index
21 - Courts with appellate criminal jurisdiction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition of ‘The Machinery of Justice in England’
- Abbreviations
- I Historical introduction
- II Civil jurisdiction
- III Tribunals
- IV Criminal jurisdiction
- 19 Courts with original criminal jurisdiction
- 20 Coroners' Courts
- 21 Courts with appellate criminal jurisdiction
- 22 The process of prosecution
- 23 Criminal procedure
- 24 The process of sentencing (including probation)
- 25 Juvenile courts
- 26 The matrimonial jurisdiction of magistrates – the Domestic Court
- V The personnel of the law
- VI The European dimension
- VII The cost of the law
- VIII Law Reform
- Appendix A The Report of the Civil Justice Review
- Table of Cases cited
- Table of Statutes cited
- Table of Stationery Office publications cited
- Index
Summary
The remaining part of the system of courts for criminal matters is concerned with criminal appeals. Before describing the courts which deal with these it is worth considering what the purpose of criminal appeal is supposed to be, and what functions we would expect courts of criminal appeal to perform in an ideal legal world. Broadly speaking, the main function of criminal appeal must surely be to see that the trial in the court of first instance reached the correct result, and to put the matter right if it did not. From the defendant's point of view, this means quashing the conviction and substituting an acquittal where he was innocent, and where he was guilty, reducing the sentence if it was unreasonably severe. From the prosecution's point of view it means the converse – substituting convictions for undeserved acquittals, and increasing sentences which are unreasonably light. But there is also a secondary purpose in a system of criminal appeals, and that is to safeguard the integrity of the system of criminal justice by making sure that criminal cases are tried according to due process of law. For example, every defendant, however manifestly guilty and no matter how vile, surely has a legitimate complaint if he was convicted on the basis of a confession extracted from him by torture, or by a jury consisting of a panel of his victims, presided over by a judge who was the brother of the policeman who investigated the case.
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- Jackson's Machinery of Justice , pp. 197 - 212Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989