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The Court of Appeal of the Republic of Singapore is the nation's highest court and its court of final appeal. It is the upper division of the Supreme Court of Singapore, the lower being the High Court. The Court of Appeal consists of the Chief Justice of Singapore, who is the President of the Court, and the Judges of Appeal. The Chief Justice may ask judges of the High Court to sit as members of the Court of Appeal to hear particular cases. The seat of the Court of Appeal is the Supreme Court Building. The Court exercises only appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters. In other words, it possesses no original jurisdiction – it does not deal with trials of matters coming before the court for the first time. In general, the Court hears civil appeals from decisions of the High Court made in the exercise of the latter's original and appellate jurisdiction, that is, decisions on cases that started in the High Court as well as decisions that were appealed from the Subordinate Courts to the High Court. However, this rule is subject to various restrictions. Some types of High Court decisions are not appealable to the Court of Appeal, while others are only appealable if the Court grants leave (permission). Where criminal matters are concerned, the Court only hears appeals from cases originating in the High Court. Matters heard by the High Court on appeal from the Subordinate Courts cannot be further appealed to the Court of Appeal, though questions of law may be submitted to the Court for determination. Under the principles of ''stare decisis'' (judicial precedent), Court of Appeal decisions are binding on the High Court and Subordinate Courts. As Singapore's final appellate court, the Court of Appeal is not required to follow its own previous decisions and the decisions of predecessor courts such as the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and may depart from or overrule such decisions if it thinks fit. However, it will generally not do so without a strong reason. The Court of Appeal is required, however, to abide by decisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore Tribunal in certain situations. The Constitution of Singapore states that where the President has referred to the Tribunal a question concerning the Constitution's effect on a bill, no court – including the Court of Appeal – may subsequently question the Tribunal's opinion on the bill or, assuming the bill is found to be constitutional, the validity of any law based on the bill. ==History== The Court of Appeal is Singapore's highest court, and thus its court of final appeal. Its earliest predecessor was the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements which, following legal changes introduced in 1873,〔By the Courts Ordinance 1873 (No. V of 1873, Straits Settlements). The Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements replaced the Court of Judicature of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca: Supreme Court Ordinance 1868 (No. V of 1868, Straits Settlements).〕 had jurisdiction to sit as a Full Court of Appeal with not less than three judges and as a Divisional Court at each settlement. However, the Court of Appeal of the Straits Settlements was not the highest appellate court of the colony. From 1826, when Singapore's first court – the Court of Judicature of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore, and Malacca – was established, appeals lay to the King-in-Council.〔The right of appeal was conferred by the Second Charter of Justice 1826 (, p. 50) and continued by the Third Charter of Justice 1855 (, pp. 35–36). In a 1924 case concerning whether money deposited by persons in India with chettiars (traditional South Indian moneylenders) in Singapore, the Straits Settlements Court of Appeal reaffirmed that the 1855 Charter provided for a right to appeal from the courts of the Settlement to the Privy Council and subsequent legislation had not removed this right: ; ; ; ; .〕 Such appeals were taken over by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council from 1844.〔Judicial Committee Act 1844 ((7 & 8 Vict., c. 69 )).〕 A party wishing to appeal had to petition the Judicial Committee for leave (permission) to do so.〔See , which reprinted a circular despatch dated 28 November 1874 issued by the Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies and published in the ''Government Gazette'' setting out the proper procedure for the transmission of petitions for leave to appeal to Her Majesty in Council from judgments of colonial supreme courts.〕 In 1934, a separate Court of Criminal Appeal was established in the Straits Settlements.〔By the Court of Criminal Appeal Ordinance 1934 (No. 17 of 1934, Straits Settlements).〕 All courts ceased to function during World War II when the Japanese occupation of Singapore began in February 1942. Though the Japanese military authorities created a court of appeal, it did not hear any cases. Following the end of the occupation in 1945, all pre-war courts were revived. There was no change in the judicial system when the Straits Settlements were dissolved in 1946 and Singapore became a crown colony in its own right,〔By the Straits Settlements (Repeal) Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. VI, c. 37).〕 except that the Supreme Court of the Straits Settlements became known as the Supreme Court of Singapore.〔Tan, pp. 42–44.〕 Singapore ceased to be part of the British Empire in 1963 when it joined the Federation of Malaysia. In 1964, the Supreme Court of the Colony of Singapore was replaced by the High Court of Malaysia in Singapore,〔By the Courts of Judicature Act 1963 (No. 7 of 1964) (Malaysia), reprinted as Act No. RS(A) 6 of 1966 in the ''Singapore Reprints Supplement (Acts)'' of the ''Government Gazette''.〕 appeals from which lay to the Federal Court of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. The Privy Council remained the final appellate court, although appellants now submitted their petitions to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (head of state of Malaysia) who sent them on to the Judicial Committee. In turn, the Judicial Committee conveyed their recommendations on appeals to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, who then made the final orders.〔.〕 Singapore left the Federation in 1965. At the time of the nation's full independence, no changes were made to the judicial system. It was only with effect from 9 January 1970 that the Supreme Court of the Republic of Singapore consisting of the Court of Appeal and High Court was established.〔By the and the .〕 The Judicial Committee Act 1966〔, later the .〕 was passed to enable the Privy Council to continue its role as Singapore's final court of appeal, and to remove the need to petition the British monarch or the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in order to appeal.〔.〕〔Tan, p. 55.〕 In 1985, 21 out of 142 appeals heard by the Privy Council originated from Singapore.〔.〕 Moves towards full legal autochthony from Britain began in 1989, when appeals to the Privy Council were limited〔By the . In ''Dow Jones Publishing Co. (Asia) Inc. v Attorney-General'' () 2 S.L.R.(R.) (Law Reports (Reissue)'' ) 331 at 335, para. 11, the Privy Council held that there was nothing in the Constitution that prevented the Singapore legislature from curtailing or abolishing the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee to entertain appeals from Singapore courts.〕 in the wake of a 1988 Privy Council ruling〔''Jeyaretnam Joshua Benjamin v. Law Society of Singapore'' () 2 S.L.R.(R.) 470, Privy Council (on appeal from Singapore).〕 reversing the Court of Appeal's decision to strike opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretnam off the roll of advocates and solicitors for having been convicted of cheque fraud and making a false declaration concerning the accounts of the Workers' Party of Singapore.〔''Wong Hong Toy and another v. Public Prosecutor'' () S.L.R.(R.) 1049, High Court (Singapore).〕 The Privy Council judged Jeyaretnam to have been the victim of a "grievous injustice" in Singapore's courts, having been "fined, imprisoned and publicly disgraced for offences of which (and his co-accused ) were not guilty".〔''Jeyaretnam Joshua Benjamin'', p. 489, para. 59; ; .〕 Under the new rules, in civil cases to appeal to the Privy Council all parties to the proceedings had to consent, while in criminal cases appeals could only be brought in death penalty cases when the Court of Criminal Appeal's decision had not been unanimous. Subsequently, with effect from 8 April 1994, all remaining appeals to the Privy Council were abolished.〔By the (for commentary, see ), the and the .〕 The Court of Criminal Appeal was done away with, and a single permanent Court of Appeal exercising both civil and criminal appellate jurisdiction was instituted with the Chief Justice sitting as the President of the Court together with Judges of Appeal, who rank above ordinary judges of the High Court.〔Tan, pp. 56–57; 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Court of Appeal of Singapore」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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