Legal Systems of the Pacific

This book provides an overview of the legal systems of a selection of Pacific Island countries. It gives a general outline of each system, with emphasis on particularities and matters of current special interest, such as climate change and the environment. It offers easy reference and information about where to find more information on specific aspects of the legal system in each of those jurisdictions.

With no new books written on these legal systems, namely the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Wallis and Futuna, for nearly 30 years, Legal Systems of the Pacific fills a gap in the literature and offers an ‘insider’ perspective on the legal system, with the majority of authors being indigenous or long-term residents of the countries in question.

With a foreword by Dame Winnie Laban (Victoria University of Wellington) and contributions by Tony Angelo (Victoria University of Wellington), Jennifer Corrin (The University of Queensland), Gregory Dale (The University of Queensland), Carine David (University of French West Indies), Victor David (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development), Joel Fangalasuu (Australian National University in Canberra), Kahealani Sinahemana Hekau (Hekau Attorneys-at-Law), Reimen Hii (independent barrister and mediator), Lise Hope-Suveinakama (Olatia Consulting Ltd of Auckland), Christopher Karaiye (Morgens Lawyers), Herve Raimana Lallemant-Moe (University of French Polynesia), Madeline Lilly-Howe (The University of Queensland), Mike Mitchell (Cook Islands’ practitioner), Jamie Molea (Victoria University of Wellington), Morsen Mosses (University of the South Pacific), Unaisi Narawa (The University of Queensland), Yves-Louis Sage (University of French Polynesia) and Beatrice Tabangcora (University of the South Pacific).

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Jennifer Corrin is Professor Emerita at The University of Queensland. She researches on law reform and development in plural legal regimes and legal issues affecting small states, and is a former legal practitioner. Before joining The University of Queensland, she spent five years at the University of the South Pacific, having joined the Faculty after nine years in her own legal firm in Solomon Islands. She is author of Contract Law in the South Pacific (now in its second edition) and co-author of Introduction to South Pacific Law (now in its fourth edition) and Courts and Civil Procedure in the South Pacific.

Tony Angelo is Emeritus Professor at Victoria University of Wellington. He has a long-standing interest in the law of small states and has published extensively on the laws of Mauritius, Seychelles and the small nations of the Pacific.