In the context of [this question](https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/36656/what-is-the-punishment-when-innocent-people-are-incorrectly-executed-under-shari) , it occurred to me that I don't know whether sharia commands to implement a system of courts of appeals.
For context: in common and civil law, states implement a system of courts of appeal, which hierarchically structures courts such that the parties of a court case decided on the lowest level of the hierarchy (the "trial court") can appeal to the competent court at the next-higher level of authority (the "appellate court") in order to request that the appellate court rules whether the trial court decided the case correctly; if the appellate court finds that the trial court misjudged the case, the appellate court can overrule the trial court's decision. There often are multiple levels of appellate courts.
I seem to recall that Ali was once requested to rule in a case in which Umar had already decided, and he rejected to do so, saying something like "I won't overrule Umar". I can't seem to find a source for this, yet it raises these questions:
Does sharia command to install a hierarchy of appellate courts, where the higher levels can override the rulings of the lower levels, if the parties of the trial bring their case to an appellate court? If appellate courts are not obligatory to install, is it halal to install them?
If this is a contentious issue in scholarly discourse, an overview over how well-subscribed the contending opinions are and an outline according to school of thought would be fantastic.
Asked by G. Bach
(2099 rep)
Dec 6, 2016, 07:20 PM
Last activity: Dec 19, 2016, 01:16 PM
Last activity: Dec 19, 2016, 01:16 PM