The Supreme Court is known as the Court of Appeal when exercising its appellate jurisdiction. The ACT Court of Appeal was created in 2001 pursuant to section 37E of the Supreme Court Act 1933 with Crispin J as its first President.
Prior to the creation of the Court of Appeal, appeals lay to the High Court (from 1934 until 1977) and then to the Federal Court of Australia (from 1977 until 2002). The Court first sat on 31 October 2001 and its first delivered judgment was Suffolk v Meere [2002] ACTCA 1, 28 March 2002.
Following the commencement of the Jurisdiction of Courts Legislation Amendment Act 2002 (Cth), which amended the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth), the ACT Court of Appeal exercises full general appellate jurisdiction, including the hearing of appeals from judgments (in both criminal and civil matters) of single judges of the Supreme Court and the Master.
The ACT Court of Appeal consists of the four resident judges and eighteen additional judges of the Supreme Court each of whose primary commission is as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia. Except in limited case, as set out in section 37H of the Supreme Court Act 1933, the Court of Appeal is constituted by three judges. Unless it is impractical to do so one of the three judges must be a resident judge. The President of the Court of Appeal must be a resident judge. The President need not be the Chief Justice.
With the retirement of Justice Gray in 2011 the office of the President of the Court of Appeal is currently unoccupied. Justice Gray was appointed President of the Court of Appeal on 21 December 2007.
The first full Court of Appeal sittings were in November 2002.
The Court of Appeal sits for 2 weeks in each sitting. Sittings are held in February, May, August and November in each year.
Court of Appeal Rules are contained in Part 5.4 of the Court Procedures Rules 2006 (volume 3).
