An act to establish operational principle, procedures, and best practices for the High Court
1. The High Court
(1) The High Court shall be composedrises of a Chief Justice and at least two Associate Justices.
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(3) The Chief Justice may order the recusal of any aAssociate jJustice on a specific issue. The Associate Justices may collectively force the recusal of the Chief Justice on a specific issue.
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(6) The Prime Minister is compelled to appoint a fitting individual as per above with all deliberate speed if:
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2. Judicial Conduct and Requirements
(1) Justices of the High Court shall:
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(3) The Chief Justice must fulfill the requirements to be an Associate Justice, and additionally, may not serve as the Prime Minister or an appointed cabinet minister, as Chair of Assembly or their deputy, or as Delegate.
3. Case Procedure
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(2) The High Court will determine with reasonable speed whether a case is justiciable. If found justiciable, a jJustice will be assigned to the case, otherwise the case is unappealably dismissed.
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(3) Any member of the South Pacific may request the recusal of the assigned jJustice at any time, which will be reviewed by the High Court. If granted, the High Court will assign another jJustice.
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(5) The assigned jJustice may, as necessary, request information, evidence, or opinions from any member or institution. With the approval of another jJustice, a member or institution may be compelled to answer such a request.
(6) Once the assigned jJustice has all necessary information and evidence, they will analyze the question with all deliberate speed to deliver an opinion. Any individuals involved in the crafting of the opinion must be named within it. The opinion must be approved by another jJustice not recused from the case.
4. Legal Questions
(1) A legal question is a case containing one or more questions seeking to receive clarification on the meaning of existing law, or the applicability of law to concrete or hypothetical situations.
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(3) The opinion delivered for a legal question shall have the full force of law until appealed, or the law upon which the opinion was based is significantly changed.
5. Criminal Cases
(1) As part of a case, the jJustice may indict an individual if there is probable cause that this individual has committed a criminal act. If the criminal act is not substantially related to the case, the assigned jJustice is encouraged to start a separate case for the indictment.
(2) Upon indictment, the individual will be contacted through at least one reasonable means, and given at least one week to defend themselves before an opinion may be delivered.
(3) The assigned jJustice will deliver with the opinion, a verdict for each indictment contained within the case. The verdict shall be guilty if and only if the accused admitted guilt, or the jJustice has determined it to be substantially more likely than not that the criminal act occurred.
6. Sentencing
(1) A sentencing case is started when an individual has been found guilty after being indicted. The case is started, if possible, by the jJustice that delivered the conviction.
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7. Appeals
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(2) An appeal may be filed by any member of the South Pacific, or by any non-member with a vested interest in the case, for at least one of the reasons described in this article.
(3) Appeals may be submitted on grounds of process violations, contradictions of law, or judicial misconduct. For such an appeal, the assigned jJustice of the case being appealed is automatically recused from the appeal case.
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8. Confidentiality
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(3) Material that is of a personal nature, such as that which reveals personally identifiable information, or which would otherwise unreasonably violate personal privacy, may be provided to the Court on a confidential basis, and published in a redacted form only if a reasonable person could not deduce the identity being protected.
9. Temporary Injunctions
(1) The assigned jJustice of a case may issue a temporary injunction to compel an individual or institution to do or refrain from specific acts. The injunction must be issued either directly to a party of the case, or to another individual or organization if the act described in the order directly affects a party of the case. An injunction may only be issued if pertinent to the orderly progression of the case, or in the interest of public peace and order.
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(3) Issuing, lifting, amending, renewing or extending a temporary injunction requires approval by another jJustice not recused from the case.
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