Court of Appeal

Court of Appeal in Election Law

Appellate jurisdiction which reexamines cases that have already been judged in a court of first instance (see: Court of first instance). The electoral law may appoint a court of appeal to reconsider decisions on election-related cases handed down by an election authority or by a specialised jurisdiction for electionrelated litigation.

Would the Formation of an International Prize Court of Appeal Infringe the Sovereignty of the Several States?

Lassa Oppenheim, in the book entitled The Future of International Law, about Would the Formation of an International Prize Court of Appeal Infringe the Sovereignty of the Several States?, wrote in 1921: 55. It is next alleged that there is a violation of sovereignty in the fact that the proposed Prize Court is a court of appeal which is to be competent to reverse the decisions of national prize courts. There is nothing in this objection also, for it rests on a petitio principii. If we but get rid of the preconception that a sovereign state can only admit an interpretation of law to be authoritative for itself when pronounced by its own courts, no reason is visible why an award of an international court which upsets an award of a national court should be considered an infringement of state sovereignty. He who alleges it to be an infringement has really in view, however unconsciously, the power of execution which is inherent in the decrees of a national court, and he is unable to conceive a judicial decree without power of execution. Judicial declarations of law have, however, as little as the essence of law itself to do with power of execution; otherwise–as indeed happens in the case of many persons–the law of nations must be denied any legal character. Now, just as that system of law is more complete behind which there stands a central authority enforcing it by compulsion, so also that judicial activity is more complete with which physical power of execution is conjoined. But alike in the one and in the other case, physical power is not an essential element in the conception. Just as there is law which in point of fact is not enforceable by any central authority, so there can also be jurisdictional functions without any correlative power of execution. International administration of justice is, in the nature of the case, dissociated from any power of this kind; therefore, too, it does not impair the sovereignty of states.

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See Also

• Election Law
• Electoral Laws
• Electoral Legislation