Skip to content

Keys to the Court

Docu-Course Content

About this Course
The Foundations of the Canadian Justice System
Discovering the Supreme Court of Canada
On the Bench: Supreme Court Justices
The Hearing
The Supreme Court Throughout its History
The Supreme Court's Reach in Canada and Abroad
Imagining the Supreme Court of the Future
Closing Arguments

Leave to Appeal, Appeal as of Right and Reference

The Three Ways a Case Can Reach the Court

Leave to Appeal, Appeal as of Right, and Reference

Leave to appeal

All civil cases and almost all criminal cases will reach the Supreme Court via leave to appeal. Learn more about this process and the requirements that must be met.

Appeal as of right

Some criminal cases reach the Supreme Court automatically, without having to obtain the Court’s permission, via a procedure called “appeal as of right”. This can be viewed as an exception to the leave to appeal procedure. Consider the example of R. v. Sharpe (2001) to gain more insight as to how this occurs.

Reference

Take a moment to explore some examples where the government brought cases to the Supreme Court via the reference procedure.

Previous Lesson
Back to Docu-course
Next Lesson
Additional Resources