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Civil justice has been undergoing a massive transformation. There have been big changes in the management of judicial business; the Human Rights Act 1988 has had a pervasive impact; the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 has effected many changes - notably, the prospective transfer of the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords to a new Supreme Court.
Against this backcloth of radical change, this book looks at the recent history and the present-day operation of the civil division of the Court of Appeal - a court that, despite its pivotal position, has attracted surprisingly little scholarly attention. It examines the impact of the permission to appeal requirements, and the way in which applications - particularly those by litigants in person - are handled; it looks at the working methods of the Lords Justices and at the leadership of the Court by recent Masters of the Rolls; it considers the relationship between the Court and the House of Lords - looking at high-profile cases in which the Court has been reversed by the Lords.
Notwithstanding the impending arrival of the Supreme Court, it concludes that 'the Court of Appeal will remain firmly in place, occupying its crucial position as, to all intents and purposes, the court of last resort-indeed, a supreme court-for most civil appellants.
Gavin Drewry is Professor of Public Administration at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is an honorary professor in the Law Faculty of UCL and is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences. Among the first of his many publications was Final Appeal: A study of the House of Lords in its Judicial Capacity (1972), co-authored with Louis Blom-Cooper.
Sir Louis Blom Cooper QC has had a long and distinguished career as a practising barrister. Between 1989 and 1996 he served as a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Jersey and of Guernsey and was a Deputy High Court Judge in the Crown Office List (1992-1996). Among his many other public appointments, he was the last Chairman of the Press Council (1989-1990) and was Chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission (1987-1994).
Charles Blake is a practising solicitor and serves as a part-time Immigration Judge. He has been a lecturer in law, and is a former senior member of the Government Legal Service.
Drewry, Blom-Cooper and Blake's stimulating analysis should be read by anyone interested in the business of the most important court in our legal system.
David Pannick Q.C.
Public Law
Spring 2008
This is an invaluable work both of reference and scholarship...This book fills a long-standing lacuna most obvious to the scholars of adjudication and the English legal system..
Carla Crifo
Civil Justice Quarterly
Vol 27, Issue 1 (2008)
As well as collecting important information on the history, personnel and case-load of the court, the book contains a discussion of important policy issues such as the nature of appeal, case management and working methods in appellate courts. The book's obvious first audience is academic but practitioners before the Court of Appeal would be well-advised to dip into it to appreciate the context of their work. The book is leavened with shrewd, and sometimes amusing, observations and is very nicely produced.
Ross Cranston QC, Professor of Law at LSE
April 2007
