judicial committee of the privy council
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. A tribunal created in 1833 with jurisdiction to hear certain admiralty and ecclesiastical appeals, and certain appeals from the Commonwealth. • From the 16th century until the 19th, the Court of Delegates was the final court of appeal in England for ecclesiastical suits. During the reign of William IV, the power to hear final appeals was transferred to the Privy Council, and then to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The committee consists entirely of laypeople; ecclesiastics become members of the court only if an appeal is brought under the Church Discipline Act. Even then the ecclesiastics must be episcopal privy counselors. The Judicial Committee’s decisions are not treated as binding precedent in the United Kingdom, but they are influential because of the overlapping composition of members of the Privy Council and the House of Lords in its judicial capacity. — Also termed Court of Final Appeal.
