Tuvalu Island Courts Bench Book - Federal Court of Australia

2.2 General Characteristics of the Tuvalu Court System
The Tuvalu Court system has two branches (see Figure 1).
One branch deals specifically with customary matters, including:
• customary land disputes;
• customary wills;
• customary succession;
• customary adoption; and
• customary fishing rights.
The Courts in this branch are:
• The Lands Courts; and
• The Lands Court Appeal Panel.
The other branch deals with civil and criminal matters and matters relating to the Constitution.
The Courts in this branch are:
• The Island Courts;
• The Magistrates’ Courts;
• The Senior Magistrate’s Court;
• The High Court;
• The Court of Appeal; and
• The Sovereign in Council.
The Tuvalu Court system is hierarchical (see Figure 1):
• This hierarchy is essential to the Doctrine of Precedent, meaning that decisions of a
Court higher in the hierarchy are binding on the lower Courts. See 4.4 below.
• The hierarchy also provides an appeal system which allows decisions to be checked by
more senior Courts. This helps prevent inconsistency within the Courts and provides a
check and balance system.
Tuvalu Island Courts Bench Book June 2004