Article 15 of the Saudi Law of the Judiciary

This article regulates the appeal courts, covering their existence and the composition of their circuits:

• Distribution: each region has one or more appeal courts.
• Work through specialized circuits: each circuit is made up of three judges, except the criminal circuit that hears cases of death, amputation, stoning and retribution for a life or for lesser injuries, which is made up of five judges.
• Grade of the judges: the grade of a judge in an appeal court may not be lower than the grade of an appeal judge.
• Each circuit has a president.
• Circuits in governorates: one or more specialized appeal circuits may be established in the governorates that belong to the region where an appeal court sits, which brings the service closer to litigants outside the regional seat.
• Appointment and absence: the president and members of each circuit are appointed by a decision of the president of the appeal court, and the president of the court, or whoever he delegates from its members, presides over the circuit when its president is absent.

Article 16 sets out the types of these circuits: civil, criminal, personal status, commercial and labor.

It is connected to Article 14, which provides that if a circuit of an appeal court wishes to depart from a principle previously adopted by a circuit of the Supreme Court, the matter is submitted to the president of the Supreme Court to refer it to the General Assembly.