The Judiciary of Macau is responsible for the
administration of justice
The administration of justice is the process by which the legal system of a government is executed. The presumed goal of such an administration is to provide justice for all those accessing the legal system. The phrase is also commonly used to d ...
in
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
. It hears all prosecutions and civil disputes, including disputes between individuals and the government. It is fundamental to Macau’s
legal system
The contemporary national legal systems are generally based on one of four basic systems: civil law, common law, statutory law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the legal system of each country is shaped by its unique history an ...
that members of the judiciary are independent of the executive and legislative branches of the
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
.
The courts of law in Macau comprise the
Court of Final Appeal and 11 other courts. The
President of the Court of Final Appeal of the Macau Special Administrative Region is head of the judiciary. A
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all ...
court system in which
Chinese,
Portuguese or both can be used was put in place, in accordance with the requirement of the
Basic Law.
List of courts of Macau
*
Court of Final Appeal (''Tribunal de Última Instância'') - the highest court in Macau. The court consists of 3 judges, one is the President.
* Judiciary Magistrates Council (''Conselho dos Magistrados Judiciais'')
* Higher Court of Justice
* Court of First Instance (''tribunais de Primeira Instância'')
* Court of General Competence
* Administrative Court (''Tribunal Administrativo'')
* Criminal Preliminary Hearing Court (''juízos de Instrução Criminal'')
* Audit Court
* Tribunal Judicial de Base
* Judiciary Council of Macau (''Tribunal Judicial de Base'')
* Court of Second Instance or Court of Appeal (''Tribunal de Segunda Instância'')
Each court is headed by a chief judge or President.
Appointment of judges
Judges of Macau are appointed by the
Chief Executive of Macau
The Chief Executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (; pt, Chefe do Executivo da Região Administrativa Especial de Macau) is the head of government of Macau, a special administrative region of China. The position replaced the o ...
with recommendation of an independent commission composed of local judges, lawyers and eminent persons. Most judges are local Macanese, but foreign judges maybe appointed.
Judiciary dress
Judges in Macau wear a simple dark gray/off black robe with a dark sash. Some judges have colour cuffs and waist bands (yellow, red and teal). Suits are worn underneath. It is similar to those worn by
Portuguese judges.
See also
*
Judiciary of Portugal
References
{{China national security
Government of Macau
Politics of Macau