Federal appellate rules vary by legal system and country. Common law countries have a specific appellate order and allow de novo review, while civil law countries may allow direct appeal to the supreme court and only overturn judgments based on errors of law. Socialist legal systems provide for a single appeal and may also allow de novo review.
Federal appellate rules govern how a lawsuit is appealed in a domestic court. Most countries in the world use one of three main types of legal systems: the common law system, the civil law system, or the socialist legal system. Each of the legal systems provides for recourse to a higher court. Federal appellate rules differ for each type of system and can vary slightly by country. Two of the more relevant comparisons that should be made between federal appellate rules in various jurisdictions is the process by which a case can reach the nation’s highest court for final decision and the extent of discretion that a court of ‘appeal has to review a case.
Federal appellate rules in the common law system provide for a specific appellate order at multiple levels of courts. Cases are first heard and decided in the lower level courts. A party wishing to appeal the lower court’s decision must appeal to the highest local or national court in the jurisdiction before appealing to the highest court in the nation. Federal appellate rules in common law countries such as the US, UK, and Canada also allow for de novo review of appellate cases, meaning that the appellate court has the ability to review the entire case, not just a specific question of law.
Federal appellate rules in some civil law countries, such as France, allow parties to appeal directly to the nation’s supreme court. In other civil law countries, such as Japan, criminal cases can be appealed directly to the supreme court, but civil matters must be appealed through a series of lower courts before they can be heard in the supreme court. Also, in many cases, appellate courts in a civil law country will only be able to overturn a judgment based on an error of law. This means that one party will not have the opportunity to introduce new evidence or facts during the appeals process.
Federal appellate rules in countries that have a socialist legal system, such as the People’s Republic of China, entitle civil plaintiffs and criminal defendants to a single appeal even though there are multiple levels of specialized courts. For example, China maintains separate courts for criminal, family, civil, maritime, military, and transportation matters. Many socialist legal systems also allow de novo review of a case.
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