The Supreme Court of Cocos (Keeling) Island is one of the highest courts for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a territory of Australia. The court was originally established in 1958 after the British Government transferred sovereignty for the island from Singapore to Australia. The court had jurisdiction to deal with all serious crimes and major civil claims for damages occurring on the Island.
Judges from Australian courts were appointed to be judges of the court. Those judges would travel to the island to hear, consider and determine cases. In 1992 courts in Western Australia were given concurrent authority to deal with cases on the Island, and those courts have now become the only venue in which litigation is conducted. The Court does not now actually decide cases, as the court will be abolished once the last appointed judge retires.
Read more about Supreme Court Of Cocos (Keeling) Island: Background To Establishment of Court, Establishment of The Court, Notable Cases, Reform, Abolition of The Court, Judges of The Court
Famous quotes containing the words supreme, court and/or island:
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
“The Twist was a guided missile, launched from the ghetto into the very heart of suburbia. The Twist succeeded, as politics, religion, and law could never do, in writing in the heart and soul what the Supreme Court could only write on the books.”
—Eldridge Cleaver (b. 1935)
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)