The Court of Appeal of the Cook Islands is the

superior court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...

of record for the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

. It hears appeals from the High Court of the Cook Islands and was established by Article 56 of the

Constitution of the Cook Islands The politics of the Cook Islands takes place in a framework of a Parliamentary system, parliamentary representative democracy within a constitutional monarchy. The Monarchy in New Zealand, Queen of New Zealand, represented in the Cook Islands by t ...

Composition and location

The judiciary is headed by the President of the Court of Appeal or, in the President's absence, the Chief Justice of the High Court or the judge with the highest seniority. The judges have seniority based on their date of first appointment to a court in the Cook Islands or elsewhere. Decisions can be made by a panel of any three judges and require a majority vote of the panel. A judge cannot hear an appeal for a decision which they made or by a court on which they sit. A judge cannot be appointed to the Court of Appeal unless they have been a judge of the

Court of Appeal of New Zealand The Court of Appeal of New Zealand is the principal intermediate appellate court of New Zealand. It is also the final appellate court for a number of matters. In practice, most appeals are resolved at this intermediate appellate level, rather t ...

, the

High Court of New Zealand The High Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Matua o Aotearoa) is the superior court of New Zealand. It has general jurisdiction and responsibility, under the Senior Courts Act 2016, as well as the High Court Rules 2016, for the administration ...

, or the High Court of the Cook Islands. A judge can also be appointed by the Queen's Representative if so advised by the Executive Council and the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

. Most sittings of the Court of Appeal take place in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Jurisdiction

The Court of Appeal can hear appeals from the High Court subject to the Constitution and the Judicature Act. These circumstances are where the High Court decides that the case involves a substantial question of law which relates to the interpretation or effect of the Constitution, where a criminal defendant has been given a fine of over $200 or sentenced to imprisonment for longer than six months, where a civil matter is more $400 or more, or there is a question involving any provision in Part IVA: Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms of the Constitution. For any other case, the appeal can be heard with the permission of the High Court if it is of high importance. The Court of Appeal decision is final, but there is a right of appeal to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

with the consent of either the Court of Appeal or the Privy Council itself.

Judges

The following are the judges of the Court of Appeal as of December 2016: * Sir David Williams QC (President) * Sir Douglas White QC (appointed 1 February 2016) * Sir Ian Barker QC * Barry Paterson QC * Robert Fisher QC (born 1941) *

Terence Arnold Sir Terence Arnold (born 1947) is a judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. He was the Solicitor-General of New Zealand from 2000, before being made a judge of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, Court of Appeal of New Zealand in 2006. He was ...

(appointed 2022)

References

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Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...