In civil matters there was the appeal from the ordinary Court to the Full Court sitting as the Cour des Jugements et Records referred to above; in this case the appeal lay to the same class of judges as had sat at first instance but in greater number. Thus it can be seen that reform of the appellate procedure was badly needed.

These defects were acknowledged and emphasised in the Report of the Committee of the Privy Council on Proposed Reforms in the Channel Islands of March 1947 (Cmd. 7074); it was there pointed out that, as has been mentioned, in the case of a civil appeal the same judge could preside both at the hearing at first instance and on the appeal, and of the seven Jurats who heard the appeal two could be the same two who had sat at first instance. Stress was also laid on the cost of pursuing an appeal to the Judicial Committee.

Accordingly the Committee of the Privy Council recommended the setting up of a Court of Appeal for the Channel Islands to hear civil and criminal appeals. An order in Council was made on the 31st May 1949, citing the report of the Privy Council Committee, and was registered on the 18th June 1949 but never came into effect.

However, a further report was contained in Billet d'Etat XVI of 1953, debated on 6th November, 1953, and by then it had been recognised that the circumstances prevailing in the two Bailiwicks were not sufficiently similar. There was then a further delay which came to an end when Billet d'Etat I of 1961, debated on 25th January 1961, contained the Projet de Loi which became the Guernsey Appeal Law of 1961. By this time it had been finally accepted that the differences between the two islands were such as to require two separate Courts of Appeal, one for each Bailiwick.