History of The Judicial System
Bhutan's civil and criminal codes are based on the Tsa Yig, a code established by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in the seventeenth century. The Tsa Yig was revised in 1957 and ostensibly replaced with a new code in 1965. Historically, in Bhutan's judicial system, the King of Bhutan played an active role in the selection and retention of judges, as well as adjudication. Judicial appointments were made by the monarch, and until 2008, could be recalled by him at any time. Furthermore, the monarch was the final court of appeal (the "Supreme Court of Appeal").
During the reign of the Third King, Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, the National Assembly enacted the first comprehensive codified laws known as the Thrimzhung Chhenmo ("Supreme Law") in 1953, which contain almost all modern categories of criminal offenses and their penalties. The 1965 code, however, retained most of the spirit and substance of the seventeenth-century code. Family problems, such as marriage, divorce, and adoption, usually were resolved through recourse to Buddhist or Hindu religious law. As late as 1991, village heads often judged minor cases and district officials adjudicated major crimes.
Trials in the 1980s were public, and it was the practice of the accuser and the accused each to put their cases in person to judges. There were no lawyers in Bhutan's legal system until the 1980s, and decisions were made on the facts of each case as presented by the litigants. Judges appointed by the Druk Gyalpo were responsible for investigations, filing of charges, prosecution, and judgment of defendants. Serious crimes were extremely rare throughout the twentieth century, although there were reports of increased criminal activity in the 1980s and early 1990s with the influx of foreign laborers, widening economic disparities, and greater contact with foreign cultures.
Arrests could be made only under legal authority. Exile, stated as a punishment in the 1953 Constitution of the National Assembly, and its 1968 revision, was generally unused as a form of punishment; mutilation was abolished in 1965. Fines, according to various reports, ranged from the equivalent of US$10 to US$55, and jail sentences from seven days to one month were levied against citizens who violated the driglam namzha a compulsory but not widely enforced 1989 royal decree that they wear the national dress at formal gatherings to preserve and promote Bhutanese culture. With respect to international criminal law, in 1988 the National Assembly ratified a SAARC convention on terrorism, which Bhutan has consistently condemned in international forums. It provided for extradition of terrorists.
Until the enactment of the Constitution of Bhutan in 2008, the Royal High Court of Bhutan was the highest court in the kingdom . The Royal High Court had original jurisdiction over the twenty dzongkhags of the nation.
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