Higher courts in the United Kingdom
The High Court in England and Wales, the Court of Session (Outer House) in Scotland and the High Court in Northern Ireland are the courts of first instance for regulatory and competition law litigation in the UK, except for:
- appeals against competition law and electronic communications decisions of regulators, and some other competition law cases, which go to the Competition Appeal Tribunal;
- financial services and tax appeals which go to one of the Finance and Tax Tribunals; and
- energy code appeals and administrative inquiries into mergers, markets and licence modifications which are conducted by to the Competition Commission.
Appeals from the higher courts and from the Competition Appeal Tribunal go to the Court of Appeal, the Inner House of the Court of Session or the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland. Decisions of the Competition Commission are subject to judicial review in the Competition Appeal Tribunal. Decisions of the VAT Tribunal can be appealed (on a point of law) to the High Court in England, the Inner House of the Court of Session in Scotland, and the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland.
A further and final appeal is to the judicial committee of the House of Lords (or potentially the judicial committee of the Privy Council for some Scottish constitutional matters). Both committees are to be replaced by a UK supreme court under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
UK courts and tribunals can make references for preliminary rulings on questions of Community law to the European Court of Justice.
The following items have been filed under High Courts, Court of Session, Courts of Appeal, Privy Council or House of Lords.
