Criminal
Criminal Code Act 1974 with the death penalty abolished in 2022
A codified criminal law in the Queensland Griffith Code tradition, the Criminal Code Act 1974, prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor. Parliament abolished the death penalty in January 2022.
Key rules
- Deadline — An arrested person must be brought before a court without delay under Constitution s. 42
- Deadline — Appeals to the Supreme Court are generally filed within 40 days
Governing law
- Criminal Code Act 1974 (s. 7)
- Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 2022abolition of the death penalty
- Bail Act 1977
- Village Courts Act 1989
In practice
The Code descends from the Queensland Criminal Code, so its structure will be familiar to Australian practitioners, but it has been amended locally in significant ways — including on sorcery-related killings, where the Sorcery Act was repealed in 2013 to remove the defence of belief in sorcery. The death penalty remained on the books unused for decades and was formally abolished in 2022. Serious offences are tried in the National Court without a jury; the judge sits alone, which distinguishes PNG from Fiji's assessor model and from Australia. Village Courts exercise limited criminal jurisdiction over customary matters and impose compensation orders, and their reach into criminal matters is far wider in practice than the statute suggests.