Criminal
Penal Code Act with custom reconciliation relevant to sentence
The Penal Code Act codifies offences and the Criminal Procedure Code governs process, prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor. There is no death penalty, and custom reconciliation may be taken into account on sentence.
Key rules
- Deadline — A person arrested must be brought before a court within 24 hours
- Deadline — Appeals to the Court of Appeal are generally filed within 14 days in criminal matters
Governing law
- Penal Code Act (Cap. 135) (s. 6)
- Criminal Procedure CodeCap. 136
- Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2016
- Counter Terrorism and Transnational Organised Crime Act 2005
In practice
The Penal Code reflects the mixed heritage — its drafting owes something to civil-law codification as well as to English offence definitions. Section 119 expressly allows a court to take into account any custom reconciliation ceremony that has taken place when sentencing, which formalises a practice found informally elsewhere in Melanesia; it mitigates but does not displace punishment, and courts have warned against treating it as a substitute in serious sexual offences. Trials are by judge alone in the Supreme Court. The 24-hour limit on detention before court is constitutionally grounded and shorter than Fiji's 48 hours.