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The Thirty-third Amendment of the Constitution is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which established a Court of Appeal to sit between the existing High and Supreme Courts, and take over the existing appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The amendment was effected by the Thirty-third Amendment of the Constitution (Court of Appeal) Act 2013, which was approved by the electorate in a referendum on 4 October 2013, and then signed into law by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins on 1 November 2013. The Thirty-third Amendment makes appeals from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court subject to obtaining the Supreme Court's leave, which would only be granted in cases of general public importance or in the interests of justice. This is intended to reduce the work load of the Supreme Court and allow it to concentrate on a smaller number of more important cases. Before the adoption of the amendment, the Supreme Court had mandatory jurisdiction—civil cases decided by the High Court were directly appealable to the Supreme Court, which had no choice over which appeals it heard. The bill was passed through both houses of the Oireachtas on 24 July 2013 and was put to a referendum on 4 October 2013, at which 65.1% voted in favour, on a turnout of 39.15%.〔 The government expects the Court of Appeal to be in place by October 2014. ==Background== The Constitution provided for the establishment of two courts: the Supreme Court and the High Court. Other courts may be established by statute but may not question the constitutionality of legislation. The High Court is a court of first instance with general original jurisdiction, hearing the most important cases in civil law and criminal law (in the latter case sitting as the Central Criminal Court). The High Court also acts as an appellate court for cases initially heard before the Circuit Court, a court of limited jurisdiction. The Supreme Court hears appeals from the High Court and the Court of Criminal Appeal and, less often, referrals of bills from the President under Article 26 of the Constitution. While the Supreme Court has the final authority to interpret the Constitution, many cases it hears are not constitutional in nature. In 1971 there were five Justices on the Supreme Court and seven on the High Court; in 2009 the respective figures were eight and 36.〔Working Group on a Court of Appeal 2009, p.6〕 The number of cases appealed to the Supreme Court has increased faster than the number of justices, resulting in a backlog of several years.〔 In 2006 the then government established a Working Group on a Court of Appeal, chaired by Susan Denham, who was then an ordinary Justice of the Supreme Court and became Chief Justice in 2010.〔〔Working Group on a Court of Appeal 2009, p.9〕 The Working Group's report was published in May 2009.〔〔Working Group on a Court of Appeal 2009, p.1〕 The 2013 bill was published by Alan Shatter, the Minister for Justice and Equality, on 9 July 2013. It is along the lines of the recommendations of the 2009 Working Group's report.〔 The bill makes one change not related to the new Court of Appeal: removing the "one-judgment rule" which provided that only one opinion could be given by the Supreme Court on constitutional cases. The deletion will allow divergent views, such as in concurring and dissenting opinions, to be published. This change only applies to reviews under Article 34, not review of bills under Article 26. 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「Thirty-third Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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