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LawLegianceWorld Legal Atlas
New editioncountry guide

The Papua New Guinea Legal System

A complete plain-language guide to Independent State of Papua New Guinea

4.4(975 reviews)From $29
Edition
2026 Edition
Extent
1725 pages
Language
English
ISBN
978-1-0000-185-1

About this book

A structured tour of how law actually works in Papua New Guinea — where it comes from, who makes it, which court hears what, and how an ordinary person or business interacts with the system. Written for readers with no legal training, with every institution named and every primary source cited so you can verify the position yourself. A common-law system built on an autochthonous constitution — one adopted by Papua New Guinea's own Constituent Assembly in 1975 rather than granted by an imperial statute. Its most distinctive feature is that custom is a direct source of the underlying law: Schedule 2.1 of the Constitution adopts custom as part of the underlying law, and the Underlying Law Act 2000 directs courts to apply custom first and the common law only where custom does not cover the point. About 97% of land is customary and cannot be sold. Roughly 1,600 Village Courts apply custom to everyday disputes and handle far more matters than the formal courts.

What is inside

  • Full Papua New Guinea court hierarchy explained tier by tier
  • Named regulators with contact routes and response times
  • Step-by-step procedures for the most common legal tasks
  • Every claim footnoted to an official primary source
  • Glossary of local legal terminology in plain English

Table of contents

5 parts · 18 chapters

Part I — Foundations

  1. 01The legal tradition
  2. 02Constitutional framework
  3. 03Sources of law

Part II — Institutions

  1. 01The court hierarchy
  2. 02Government and regulators
  3. 03Enforcement bodies
  4. 04The legal profession

Part III — Everyday Law

  1. 01Work and employment
  2. 02Housing and property
  3. 03Family and personal status
  4. 04Criminal process

Part IV — Doing Things

  1. 01Starting a business
  2. 02Immigration and residence
  3. 03Tax obligations
  4. 04Making a complaint

Part V — Reference

  1. 01Procedure checklists
  2. 02Glossary
  3. 03Official sources index

Who this is for

  • Residents and newcomers who need to understand their rights
  • Businesses entering or operating in the jurisdiction
  • Lawyers taking a first look at an unfamiliar system
  • Students of comparative law

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