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the Supreme Court shall, "with such exceptions and
subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by
law, have appellate jurisdiction over all decisions of
the High Court, and shall also have appellate jurisdic-
tion over such decisions of other Courts as may be.
prescribed by law".
It was abundantly clear that the appellant was tried
by the High Court and was sentenced by the High
Court sitting as the Central Criminal Court.
Conviction or Acquittal by the High Court
Having referred to the functions of Judges and
Juries in trials, Mr. Justice Walsh said in his view it
was not correct to describe any prisoner as having been
convicted or acquitted by the Jury. A conviction or
acquittal is clearly an acquittal or conviction by the
High Court and not by a jury.
It appeared to him that an acquittal or a conviction
and/or sentence by the High Court was a decision of
the High Court which was within the appellate juris-
diction of the Supreme Court unless it has been except-
ed from the appellate jurisdiction by an Act of the
Oireachtas. No express exception had been made by
any Act of the Oireachtas in respect of decisions of
the High Court in the exercise of its criminal jurisdic-
tion, even in its criminal jurisdiction, the High Court
had jurisdiction to decide upon the constitutionality
of any law submitted to it.
Implied exception for Court of Criminal Appeal
Continuing, he said it had been submitted on behalf
of the Attorney-General that such an exception wes to
be necessarily implied in the case of decisions which
were convictions and/or sentences from the statutory
provisions in relation to the jurisdiction of the Court
óf Criminal Appeal. Any statutory provision which
had as its object the excepting of some decisions of
the High Court from the appellate jurisdiction of the
Supreme Court or any particular provision seeking
to confine the scope of such appeals within particular
limits, would, of necessity have to be clear and un-
ambiguous.
The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
flowed directly from the Supreme Court, and any dimi-
nution of that jurisdiction would be a matter of such
great importance that it would have to be shown to
fall clearly within the provisions of the Constitution
and within the limitations imposed by the Constitution
upon any such legislative action.
Having referred at length to the jurisdiction of the
Court of Criminal Appeal, Mr. Justice Walsh said
it had been submitted on behalf of the appellant that
the establishment of the Court of Criminal Appeal was
invalid, having regard to the provisions of the Con-
stitution. The main grounds why this submission was
advanced were that there was no reference in the Con-
stitution to the establishment of the Court of Criminal
Appeal and no provision for the appointment of Judges
to it. However, Article 34 (1) provided that justice
shall be administered in Courts established by law by
Judges appointed in the manner provided in the Con-
stitution.
Oireachtas given powers to establish Courts
In his view Article 34 gave authority to the Oireach-
tas to establish such Courts as it might think fit and to
disestablish them as it thought fit but subject to the
mandatory provisions which related to the High Court
and to the Supreme Court. He was satisfied that the
statutory provisions establishing the Court of Criminal
Appeal were not invalid, having regard to the provisions
of the Constitution. The Judges who sat on the Court
of Criminal Appeal were Judges appointed in the man-
ner provided by the Constitution.
Within the concurrent limited jurisdiction which it
excercised, recourse to the Court of Criminal Appeal was
capable of completely exhausting the subject matter of
the appeal. In such a case its decision was final. The sit-
uation was otherwise if it should entertain a case in
which it was incapable of exhausting the subject mat-
ter. Such a case would be an appeal against a con-
viction in a case which involved the validity of any
law, having regard to the provisions of the Constitution.
It was only in cases where it w?s capable of exhausting
the whole decision against which the appeal was taken
that its decision could be final. However the Court of
Criminal Appeal was clearly not the High Court, but
a Statutory Court which could be disestablished.
In the present case the appellant chose to invoke
the jurisdiction of the Court of Criminal Appeal in a
matter in which it had jurisdiction to adjudicate and
in respect of which the appellate jurisdiction of the
Supreme Court could be invoked.
In those circumstances there would be no point in
granting an extension of time and he would refuse the
motion seeking it, he said. Mr. Justice Doyle
agreed.
Opinion Reserved on Constitutional question
Mr. Justice Griffin,
in a judgment with which
Mr.
Justice Budd
agreed, said that apart from the submis-
sion on behalf of the applicant that the statutory pro-
visions establishing the Court of Criminal Appeal were
invalid, having regard to the Constatution (which
question had been decided by the Court), argument
was addressed to the Court on the questions of whether
a convicted person was entitled by Article 33 (4) (3)
of the Constitution to appeal direct to the Supreme
Court against his conviction and sentence in the High
Court (sitting as the Central Criminal Court), and
whether in the case of a person acquitted by the Cen-
tral Criminal Court an appeal against such acquittal
lay to the Supreme Court, or whether the provisions
of Section 29 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924, as
carried forward by Section 48 of the Courts (Supple-
mental Provisions) Act, 1961, constituted an exception
or a regulation prescribed by law within the meaning
of Article 34 (4) (3).
He said that in the events that had happened, and
having regard to the course of this litigation, these
questions did not call for a decision on the hearing
of the present application and he expressly reserved
his opinion on these questions as any opinion he might
give would be extraneous to what arose for decision on
this matter. As the case had been determined by the
Court of Criminal Appeal, it was not open to the ap-
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