NRS-1023 | Charter of Justice, Letters Patent, 1814 (Manuscript)

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The second Charter of Justice of New South Wales laid the judicial foundation of Van Diemen's Land. This Charter provided for three new civil courts in New South Wales in place of the civil court established under the New South Wales founding Charter of Justice in 1787. These were the Supreme Court, the Governor's Court and the Lieutenant-Governor's Court. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court extended to the dependent territory of Van Diemen's Land but the Governor's Court did not. The Lieutenant-Governor's Court covered all of Van Diemen's Land and was the first Court created specifically for Van Diemen's Land.

The Lieutenant-Governor's Court of Van Diemen's land was empowered to hear pleas only when the sum in dispute did not exceed £50. Until the creation of this Court, only magistrates courts actually sat in Van Diemen's Land. These were confined to ordering corporal punishment or transportation for non-capital offences below £50.

The creation of a New South Wales Supreme Court in 1814, which could hear civil pleas above £50, did not alter the need for Tasmanian civil litigants and witnesses to travel to Sydney. It was 1819 before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court made his first visit to Van Diemen's Land. The Island was no better served by the criminal court, which was not covered by this Charter of Justice, and prosecutors, defendants and witnesses still had to go to Sydney. The first visit of the Judge-Advocate to Van Diemen's Land was not until 1821.

When John Bigge reported on the colonial judicial arrangements in 1823 he affirmed in strong terms the poor quality of service provided by these two courts to Van Diemen's Land. The three courts established by this Charter were superseded by arrangements set up under the new Charter of Justice in 1823.

This copy of the Charter of Justice was the official one sent to the Colony. It was probably held initially by the Secretary to the Governor and later maintained by the Colonial Secretary's Department.