Supreme Court (New Zealand)

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Supreme Court in Wellington

The Supreme Court is New Zealand's supreme court and final court of appeal . It began operating on January 1, 2004 with its headquarters in Wellington .

Role and structure of the court

The court was formed to make it clear that New Zealand is a separate and independent nation represents, with its own history, its own traditions and its own legal system with respect to the Treaty of Waitangi . As the highest instance, the Supreme Court has the task of preserving the general consistency of the New Zealand legal system through its jurisdiction . Requests for revision to the court are examined and are only allowed if they are in the interests of justice. The Supreme Court consists of five judges who continue to serve as high court judges . If the number of five permanent judges cannot be reached, the court can also appoint retired judges up to the age of 75.

history

In December 1841, the then Supreme Court was established as the highest court in the New Zealand colony. He served as a high court . The task of the Supreme Court for New Zealand at the time of its colonization was taken over by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London . The committee, which was founded in 1833, was responsible for appeals procedures in civil and criminal law from the British colonies. Following the establishment of the New Zealand Court of Appeal in 1862, appeals procedures were conducted in New Zealand. The Judicial Committee in London for New Zealand remained as the highest and last judicial instance . This meant that most New Zealanders could not go to the highest court for financial reasons.

Robert Stout , then Chief Justice (1899–1926) and later Prime Minister of New Zealand , had the desire to break away from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and to install its own supreme court in New Zealand. In 1978 this question was raised again by the report of the Royal Commission on the Courts .

In 1980 the then Supreme Court was renamed " High Court ". This gave the name to a new supreme independent judicial instance in the country.

In 1996, a government coalition of the New Zealand National Party and New Zealand First introduced the New Zealand Courts Structures Bill into the New Zealand House of Representatives , which, however, rejected it. It was not until the governing coalition of the New Zealand Labor Party and Alliance drafted a law that was passed by the New Zealand Parliament under the name Supreme Court Act 2003 and came into force on January 1, 2004. On July 1, 2004, the court accepted the first appeals.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Role and Structure of the Supreme Court. Courts of New Zealand, archived from the original on May 14, 2016 ; accessed on September 17, 2012 (English, original website no longer available).
  2. ^ Geoffrey Rivlin : Understanding the Law . 5th edition. Oxford University Press , New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-954720-3 , pp.  161-162 (English).

Coordinates: 41 ° 16 ′ 48.2 ″  S , 174 ° 46 ′ 36.7 ″  E