appeal, the resort to a higher court to review the decision of a lower court, or to a court to review the order of an administrative agency. In varying forms, all legal systems provide for some type of appeal.
The concept of appeal requires the existence of a judicial hierarchy. A typical hierarchy includes, at the lowest level, trial courts of limited or special jurisdiction, often called magistrates’ courts, justices of the peace, small-claims courts, municipal courts, or police courts; trial courts of general jurisdiction that often are called district, circuit, or superior court; and a court of appellate jurisdiction, which may be the ultimate supreme court of a system. Some countries introduce an intermediate appellate court, called the court of appeals, between the trial court level and the court of ultimate appeal. Usually, each court in the hierarchy is subject to review only by the court immediately above it. Frequently, however, an intermediate step may be omitted because the importance or immediacy of a legal problem calls for direct review of the trial court by the highest appellate tribunal.
In some countries different courts serve as the highest appeals court according to the types of cases and judicial problems. In France the Cour de Cassation (the supreme court) hears appeals on the interpretation of the law, whereas the court of appeal retries cases on the issue of fact. In contrast, the Conseil d’État hears appeals both on facts and on the interpretation of law from a separate system of administrative courts. Constitutional questions are handled by a constitutional council that is both legislative and judicial.
In Germany the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice) is concerned primarily with a unified interpretation of the law, and there is a separate Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) to deal with constitutional questions. The court of appeals (Oberlandesgericht) retries cases both on issues of law and fact in civil matters and on issues of law only in criminal matters. The Supreme Court of the United States hears appeals on fact, interpretation, constitutional cases from lower federal courts, and appeals from state courts concerning issues of federal law. In England appeals on matters of fact in some instances go to different courts than do those on matters of law. The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal. The Supreme Court of Japan serves as a final appeals court on questions of fact, law, and constitutional compatibility.
As a practical and legal matter, only the party aggrieved by an order or judgment is entitled to seek a review in the appellate court. Neither an outsider nor the party who prevailed in the case is permitted to seek a review of the decision by a higher court. However, when persons not originally parties to the action have been permitted to intervene or have been represented by others, as in class actions, they generally have the same rights of appeal as the original parties. There are few jurisdictions in which an appeal on a verdict of acquittal in a criminal case is allowed.
Orders and judgments of trial courts may be divided into two categories for the purposes of appeal: final and interlocutory. A final judgment is one that brings an end to litigation and leaves nothing but the execution of the judgment. In the course of a trial, however, a court is required to enter decisions that settle only subsidiary questions or some but not all of the ultimate issues. These decisions are regarded as interlocutory decrees. Although all jurisdictions sanction appeals from final judgments, appeals from interlocutory decrees are far less permissible.
An appeal serves two basic functions. Its first and primary function is to ensure the litigants that justice under law has been accorded in the resolution of a specific controversy. The second function is the promulgation of rules of decision that will be binding on all lower courts within a judicial system and thus ensure uniformity of treatment and some measure of certainty and guidance to those whose actions bring them within the scope of the rule.