Appeals

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Ashcroft Burnham
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Appeals

Post by Ashcroft Burnham »

There has been some discussion of rights of appeal recently. It is clear that appeals to the Court of Scientific Council can be made only on a very limited basis. Following consideration of the discussion on the importance of an appellate jurisdiction, and the adoption by the legislature of the [url=http://forums.neufreistadt.info/viewtop ... 4:25hu0i3r]Soothsayer Rules of Procedure[/url:25hu0i3r] I am exercising my power under Article VII, Section 3(c) of the Constitution to determine that our one court shall be an [i:25hu0i3r]inferior[/i:25hu0i3r] Court of Common Jurisdiction. It shall be called the "[i:25hu0i3r]Central Court of Common Jurisdiction[/i:25hu0i3r]". I am further exercising my power under Article VII, Section 3(b) of the Constitution to direct that any superior court shall sit with an odd number of judges no fewer in number than three, and that no judge who has heard a case at first instance may sit on an appeal in that same case.

These combined actions have the effect of permitting parties whose cases are heard by a single judge in an inferior court to appeal to a superior Court of Common Jurisdiction, whenever such a court is created by the Chair of the Judiciary Commission increasing the court quota to two. Appeals will be able to be heard when the Chair also increases the judge quota to four (although, if there is a sufficiently urgent case, including perhaps an appeal of an interim decision, the special judge procedure under Article VII, Section 8 of the Constitution permits the Dean of the Scientific Council to nominate members of the Scientific Council to sit as judges where no Judge of Common Jurisdiction is available).

Although that means that appeals may not be able to be heard immediately, I do not anticipate (given the consecutive ten-day time limits in the Sootsayer Rules) that any case will have finished being heard before some time after the earliest time at which appeals would be ready to be heard if the Chair of the Judiciary Commission increased the respective quotas soon. Unless the legislature provides otherwise, no parties will fall foul of any time limit on appealing in consequence of any time that it takes to establish a superior court with enough judges.

Ashcroft Burnham

Where reason fails, all hope is lost.
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