TheCourt of Appeal (Irish:An Chúirt Achomhairc) is a court inIreland that sits between theHigh Court andSupreme Court. Its jurisdiction derives from Article 34.4. It was established in 2014, taking over the existingappellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in 2014 and replacing theCourt of Criminal Appeal and the Courts-Martial Appeal Court (subject to transitional provisions). Appeals to the Supreme Court are at that Court's discretion.

The superior courts provided under theCourts of Justice Act 1924 and the1937 constitution were the High Court and the Supreme Court. By the 1990s, there was a large backlog of cases in which the Supreme Court was required to hear appeals from the High Court. The Supreme Court heard a greater number of cases than its counterparts in other common law states.^[1] A working group which reported in 2009 recommended introducing a new court to hear most appeals of High Court judgments, freeing up the Supreme Court to restrict itself to cases of constitutional importance. This would require amending the constitution to remove the general right to appeal to the Supreme Court and allow that court the discretion to decide which cases to hear itself.^[2]

Aconstitutional amendment along the lines of the 2009 report was approved in areferendum on 4 October 2013. The Court of Appeal Act 2014 gave effect inprimary legislation to the new constitutional provision.^[3] The Rules of the Superior Courts and schedule ofcourt fees were then amended bystatutory instrument.^[4][5] The court came into operation on 28 October 2014.^[6]

In February 2014, the government announced that serving High Court judgeSean Ryan would be designated as the president of the new court. On 29 October 2014, the Government nominated Ryan and eight ordinary judges of the Court of Appeal,^[7] who were appointed by thePresident of Ireland on the same day.^[8] A ninth ordinary judge, John A. Edwards, was nominated on 11 November 2014,^[9] and appointed on 4 December 2014.^[10] Nine of the appointees to the new Court were judges of theHigh Court; one was promoted directly from theCircuit Court.^[7]

On 28 October 2014, the Supreme Court transferred 258 cases to the Court of Appeal.^[11] It later transferred more, to a total of about 1,650 cases.^[12]

On 10 March 2015, the Court of Appeal overturned a May 2014 High Court ruling that section 2(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 was unconstitutional, thus annullingstatutory instruments made under section 2(2) which criminalised variousdesigner drugs.^[13] The government had made contingency plans for emergency legislation after the High Court ruling, and anAct was rushed through theOireachtas on 10–11 March 2015.^[14] International media reported on the one-day decriminalisation ofMDMA andmethamphetamine.^[15][16] The ruling was overturned again by theIrish Supreme Court in the following year inBederev v Ireland.

In September 2016, a paper inThe Irish Law Times claimed "the Court of Appeal never had a prayer of solving the problem that was put to the people in this referendum, which was solving the backlog", with 1,814 cases pending at the end of 2015 compared to 2,001 cases at the start.^[17] A spokesperson for the court said it would process cases faster when it "finds its rhythm".^[17] In October 2017, the court's president said it was "coming to the point of being overwhelmed" by its backlog of cases, with about 600 added annually compared to about 320 dealt with.^[12] The Supreme Court offered to take back some of the 650 cases still outstanding from those it had transferred in 2014.^[12]

In 2014, before the introduction of the Court of Appeal, the waiting time for appeals from the High Court was five to seven years. In 2018, it averaged one year for appeals to the Supreme Court and two years to the Court of Appeal.^[18]

The Court of Appeal consists of its president, up to 18 ordinary judges, and twoex officio members: theChief Justice (head of theSupreme Court) and the President of theHigh Court.^[19] The President of the Court of Appeal isex officio an additional judge of both the Supreme Court and the High Court.^[19] The Courts Act 2019 increased the number of ordinary judges from 9 to 15.^[20]

•   denotes President

Irish Statute Book

• Thirty-third Amendment of the Constitution Act, 2013
• Court of Appeal Act 2014

Courts Service of Ireland

• Court of Appeal Judgments
• Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court Fees
• Court of Appeal Forms
• Court of Appeal Legal Diary

British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)

• Irish Court of Appeal cases

• Appellate courts
• Courts of the Republic of Ireland
• 2014 establishments in Ireland
• Judges of the Court of Appeal (Ireland)
• Courts and tribunals established in 2014

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