Court of Appeals of the Arab Union

The Court of Appeals of the Arab Union (Arabic: محكمة الاستئناف للاتحاد العربي maḥkamat al-isti’ināf lil-ittiḥād al-‘arabī) is the federal appellate court of the Arab Union, and the second-most senior court in the country's judicial system. It is one of only two permanent federal courts, along with its senior counterpart, the Supreme Court of the Arab Union; the vast majority of civil and criminal cases are held in the courts of the Arab Union's 20 republics, each of which have a supreme court and appellate court of their own and a series of subordinate district trial courts and civil claims courts.

The primary function of the Arab Union Court of Appeals is to hear appeals of verdicts of the republican supreme courts; most appeals of verdicts on civil claims are resolved via a temporary appellate tribunal established in the relevant community on authority of the Arab Union Court of Appeals, which for the duration of their existence have the same federal judicial powers as the Arab Union Court of Appeals itself, and which are dissolved following the deliverance of a verdict. Some appeals of verdicts or criminal cases are also handled this way, but less frequently: approximately 39% of such appeals are heard directly by the Court of Appeals of the Arab Union.

Verdicts of the Arab Union Court of Appeals can only be appealed to the Supreme Court of the Arab Union, which is the final stage in the appeal process. Such appeals are almost always heard via Supreme Court-authorised federal tribunals, whose verdicts cannot be appealed directly to the Supreme Court as opposed to other Supreme Court-authorised federal tribunals.