From Hafiz Hassan

In its narrowest form, an appeal allows the parties to an earlier decision to have the matter decided anew. It is an obvious way in which the decision may be reviewed for errors in law.

The court hearing an appeal will correct errors by, or affirm the decision of, the lower court judge. This lends the appellate court decision a binding precedent on the lower courts.

An appeal is also the most obvious way in which individual judges are accountable for their decisions. This is why it is said that an appeal serves two distinct (but overlapping) functions, one private and one public.

These were first noted by the Roman legal scholar Justinian.

The private function is to provide accountability to the individual litigants.

The public function is that enabling errors to be corrected maintains and enhances the confidence of citizens in the justice system.

Another aspect of the public function is that the appeal court can provide guidance for future cases and thus facilitate certainty.

In these ways, the right of appeal furthers the rule of law.

So, many may agree with senior lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar that the government should just accept the High Court ruling that children born overseas to Malaysian mothers are entitled to citizenship by operation of law.

But retired judge Gopal Sri Ram has a point to say that the government might have something to complain about and that it would only be known if the appeal was heard in the Court of Appeal and finally, in the Federal Court.

An appeal to the apex court, if that’s the course the action will take, will give finality to the ruling. As Sri Ram said, it would be better for the ruling to be finalised at the apex court.

In any case, a notice of appeal can be withdrawn after the full written grounds of judgment are made available to the parties as part of the appeal process.

Legal sense may prevail when the written grounds of judgment are made available by the High Court judge.

Hafiz Hassan is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.