In law, a case stated is a procedure by which a court or
tribunal
A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title.
For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a single ...
can ask another court for its opinion on a point of law.
There are two kinds: consultative case stated and
appeal
In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...
by way of case stated. A consultative case stated is made at the discretion of a judge before he or she determines the case before the court. An appeal by way of case stated is made at the request of a party to the proceedings to the judge after the conclusion of a case.
On the hearing of a case stated, the higher court is restricted to consideration of the law alone and is required to accept the statement of facts submitted to it by the lower court.
If the application is granted, the matter is referred to the higher court. This usually takes the form "were we/was I correct to ..." and then the specified aspect of law to which the appeal relates. If the application to state a case is refused, the applicant may be able to seek redress by
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incompat ...
. The higher court will determine whether or not the law was correctly applied. If the appeal is upheld, the higher court will refer the case back to the referring court with directions to correct its decision. Otherwise, the appeal would be dismissed.
See also
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Certified question In the law of the United States, a certified question is a formal request by one court from another court, usually but not always in another jurisdiction, for an opinion on a question of law.
These cases typically arise when the court before whic ...
, a similar process to consultative case stated in American law.
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Preliminary reference
A preliminary ruling is a decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the interpretation of European Union law that is given in response to a request (preliminary reference) from a court or a tribunal of a member state. A preliminary rulin ...
, a similar procedure in which courts and tribunals in member states of the European Union may make questions of law to the European Court of Justice for determination.
References
Appellate review
Judiciaries
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