Judicial Act
An act to establish operational principle, procedures, and best practices for the High Court
1. Composition
(1) The High Court comprises at least three Justices.
(2) For a willing and eligible individual to become a Justice, they must be nominated by the Prime Minsiter in consultation with the High Court and approved by the Assembly.
(3) The Prime Minister will nominate a fitting individual as justice as quickly as reasonably possible if:
- there are fewer than three Justices on the High Court, or
- a case cannot continue due to recusals.
2. Judicial Conduct
(1) Justices of the High Court will:
- rule upon what is written in law, and not be influenced by prejudice based on personal bias, corruption by undue influence, or discord;
- consider the impact of Court rulings carefully to ensure that, whenever possible, no individual is empowered to exploit rulings of the Court;
- maintain good communication with fellow Justices as well as the broader community; and
- be reasonably inquisitorial.
(2) Justices must:
- be a resident of the South Pacific,
- pass a security check conducted by the Citizenship Commission upon nomination, and
- take an oath of confidentiality and impartiality.
3. Case Procedure
(1) Cases can be legal questions, criminal complaints, or criminal appeals.
(2) The High Court will establish and publicly document a process for submitting cases that ensures that:
- any individual authorized to submit a case can access the means to do so, and
- submitted cases are visible to the public.
(3) The High Court will determine with reasonable speed whether a case is justiciable. If found justiciable, a justice will be assigned to the case. Otherwise, the case is unappealably dismissed.
(4) If a justice recuses themselves or a request for the recusal of the assigned justice is granted, the High Court will assign another justice.
(5) Any member of the South Pacific may:
- submit a case to the High Court;
- submit information, evidence, or opinions relevant to a case; and/or
- request the recusal of the assigned justice at any time, which will be reviewed by the High Court.
(6) The assigned justice may, as necessary, request information, evidence, or opinions from any member or institution. With the approval of another justice, a member or institution may be compelled to answer such a request.
(7) The assigned justice will gather all necessary information and evidence and analyze the question(s) posed by a case with all deliberate speed to deliver a ruling. Any individuals involved in the crafting of the ruling must be named within it. The opinion must be approved by another justice not recused from the case.
(8) Unless otherwise specified in this law, cases will run for at least 72 hours from the assignment of a justice to the delivery of a ruling.
4. Legal Questions
(1) A legal question is a case containing one or more questions about the meaning of laws or regulations or their applicability to concrete or hypothetical situations.
(3) The ruling delivered for a legal question shall have the full force of law until appealed or the law upon which the ruling was based is significantly changed.
5. Criminal Complaints
(1) A criminal complaint is a case containing one or more questions about whether one or more individuals committed a criminal act.
(2) For each individual listed in a criminal complaint, the assigned justice will determine if there is probable cause to believe the individual committed that act. The individual is indicted for the criminal acts, if any, for which such probable cause exists.
(3) Indicted individuals will be informed through at least one reasonable means and given at least one week to defend themselves before a ruling may be delivered.
(4) The assigned justice will deliver an ruling that includes a verdict for each indictment contained within the case. The verdict shall be guilty if and only if the accused admitted guilt or the justice has determined it to be substantially more likely than not that the criminal act occurred.
(5) The ruling delivered by the assigned justice will include a sentence for each guilty verdict, if any.
6. Criminal Appeals
(1) An appeal is a case containing one or more questions about whether a criminal conviction should be overturned.
(2) Appeals can only be submitted if there is no other pending appeal for that case. Appeals can only be submitted against the most recently adjudicated appeal, or if none exists, then against the criminal case itself.
(3) Appeals may be submitted on grounds of process violations, contradictions of law, or judicial misconduct. For such an appeal, the assigned justice of the case being appealed is automatically recused from the appeal case.
(4) Appeals may be submitted upon submission of new evidence that can reasonably be considered grounds for reviewing the original ruling.
7. Confidentiality
(1) Unless otherwise specified in this article, material submitted for a case will be visible alongside the case proceedings in a public venue.
(2) Confidential material that may harm regional security may be submitted to the Court, provided that the Court works with the corresponding authority to redact the information that may harm regional security.
(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.
8. Temporary Injunctions
(1) The assigned justice 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.
(2) Any injunction must include a time limit not exceeding four weeks, after which it expires. An injunction may be extended at any time, with each extension also including a time limit not exceeding four weeks from the moment the extension is issued. An injunction automatically expires when its associated case completes, unless it is grandfathered into a succeeding sentencing case if applicable.
(3) Issuing, lifting, amending, renewing or extending a temporary injunction requires approval by another justice not recused from the case.
(4) A temporary injunction may not unreasonably restrict an individual’s existing right of participation in the region, nor may it exclude the possibility of seeking remedy through the court. A temporary injunction may not order an act that is not reversible.