APPEAL, COURT OF

in England and Wales, the highest court below the House of Lords, which sits as the final court of appeal in both criminal and civil matters. The court is divided into two divisions: the Civil Division and the Criminal Division. The Civil Division takes cases on appeal from the High Court of Justice and the county courts. Four members of its judiciary are considered ex officio: the lord chancellor (who is head of the Chancery Division of the High Court), the lord chief justice (who presides over the Queen's [or King's] Bench Division of the High Court), the president of the Family Division of the High Court, and the master of rolls. There are also 14 regular members who are called the lord justices of appeal. The Criminal Division consists of a president (either the lord chief justice or a lord justice of appeal) and other High Court judges hearing the cases as ordinary members. Appeals may come from the High Court immediately below or from the Crown Court. Appeals against a sentence or conviction may be brought on a point of law. Occasionally, with the permission of either the trial judge or the Court of Appeal, a question of fact may be entered, or a question of both fact and law may be permitted as the basis for an appeal. The Court of Appeal may uphold the decision of the lower court, reverse it, or change the sentence. (However, the new sentence may not be more severe than the original.) Although the court rarely orders a retrial, it may do so in the interests of justice. The Court of Appeal may also act as an advisory body for the attorney general. If the House of Lords refuses to hear an appeal from a decision of the Court of Appeal, that decision is final.