Section I. The High Court of the Queen in Parliament

The various courts that possess a general criminal jurisdiction will now be considered in the order of their dignity, beginning with the highest court in the realm. Its title must not mislead the student into supposing either that the Queen sits there in person, or that the word ‘Parliament’ is used in the usual modern sense, as including the House of Commons. But a Parliament, sitting without the Sovereign or the Commons, becomes simply the House of Lords, by which, accordingly, the jurisdiction of this court is exercised. That jurisdiction is twofold: (a) as a court of appeal, and (b) as a court of first instance.

AS A COURT OF APPEAL

In civil matters the House of Lords is the only final court of appeal on all questions of law from English secular tribunals. But in criminal causes it is only one, and far the less active, of two such courts. Until 1907 its functions of appeal were limited to those extremely rare cases of error of law apparent on the record itself. Such an error would appear in any indictment that disclosed no crime. But the Act of 19072 which created the new Court of Criminal Appeal provided that from it there might be an appeal to the House of Lords by either the prosecution or the defence on any point of law which the Attorney- General should certify to be of such exceptional public importance that it would be desirable ‘in the public interest’ to have the highest decision on it.