Rights
2013 Constitution with a justiciable Bill of Rights
A common-law system under the 2013 Constitution, Fiji's fourth since independence. Unlike Australia it has a broad justiciable Bill of Rights, but the document was promulgated by decree rather than by an elected assembly and sets a deliberately high bar for its own amendment.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — A unitary state. There are no provincial legislatures with law-making power; the iTaukei administration operates under statute rather than as a separate tier of sovereignty.
Governing law
- Constitution of the Republic of Fiji 2013, ch. 2
- Constitution of the Republic of Fiji 2013 (s. 160)
- Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission Act 2009
In practice
Chapter 2 contains an unusually detailed Bill of Rights, including socio-economic rights to housing, education and health that most common-law constitutions omit. Two features cut against it. First, amendment requires a three-quarters majority of Parliament, so the text is close to entrenched beyond practical reach. Second, several chapters immunised earlier decrees and their makers from challenge, which limits how far past acts can be litigated. Fiji abolished appeals to the Privy Council, so the Supreme Court of Fiji is final, though it can and does sit with judges from other Commonwealth jurisdictions.