Judiciary Act 2025

Judiciary Act 2025

Passed by the Senate and signed on the 25th of September, 2025

Preamble

Whereas It is necessary to have an act relating to the Inferior Courts;

Be it enacted by the Senate of SimDemocracy

Part 1: Establishment of the Inferior Courts

Article 1: The Inferior Courts

§1. The Inferior Courts shall consist of:

(a) The Inferior Court, which operates pursuant to the Courtroom Procedures Act 2025 and other legislation;

(b) The Court of Review, which operates in accordance with this act and other legislation; and,

Such other courts as established by law.

§2. Judges of all the Inferior Courts shall be appointed by the President in accordance with the Constitution, who must specify the court(s) to which the person shall be appointed to.

§3. The Inferior Court shall have original jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases, and the Court of Review shall have the jurisdiction as set out under this Act.

Part 2: Court of Review

Article 2: Formation of the Court of Review

§1. All proceedings before the Court of Review shall be heard before a panel of three Court of Review judges, unless otherwise specified. Judges shall be assigned on a rotating schedule, excluding inactive or busy Judges. Multiple cases may be heard at the same time, subject to the availability of the Judges.

§1.1. The Court Registrar or Registrar for the Court of Review, as the case may be, shall be responsible for assigning judges.

§1.2. Applications for the court to exercise continuing jurisdiction shall be heard by a single Judge of the Court of Review.

§2. If there are less than three Court of Review Judges at any point of time, proceedings before the Court of Review shall be heard by all the Judges on the court.

§3. Proceedings before three or more Judges of the Court of Review must be decided through majority opinion. Proceedings before less than three Judges of the Court of Review must be decided by unanimous opinion. When a court is unable to reach a majority or unanimous opinion, as the case may be, the case must be dismissed.

§3.1. If dismissing a case is not permitted under Article 5, and a court cannot reach a unanimous opinion when a case is heard by less than three Judges of the Court of Review, an additional Judge of the Inferior Court shall be included in the panel by random selection, excluding Judges already on the panel, and the decision shall be made by majority opinion.

§4. The Court of Review shall not hear cases before the Supreme Court.

<ref name="expartemisc" />§4.1. Should the Supreme Court begin hearing a case which has the same or similar question to a case before the Court of Review, any Court of Review Judge, with the concurrence of another, must summarily dismiss the case before the Court of Review.

§4.1.1. The requirement to dismiss the case shall not be present if the question is not the same as the one before the Supreme Court.

Article 3: General jurisdiction of Court of Review

§1. The Court of Review shall have appellate and continuing jurisdiction over all matters to which the Inferior Court has jurisdiction under the Constitution.

§1.1. This jurisdiction shall include requests for enforcement orders pursuant to the Schedule in exercise of the continuing jurisdiction, even after the Inferior Court has ceased to retain jurisdiction.

§2. The Court of Review shall have jurisdiction to pronounce upon any question of law referred to it by any Judge of the Inferior Court of SimDemocracy, or by the Speaker of the Senate, or the President.

§3. The Court of Review shall have jurisdiction to examine the validity of any law, ordinance, order, or executive act of the Government or Legislature, and to declare the same void if it is inconsistent with the Constitution.

§4. The Court of Review has additional jurisdiction as further specified under this Act.

Article 4: Manner of initiating cases with the Court of Review

§1. A case may be filed in any channel on the SimDemocracy Discord Server which the Registrar and all Judges and Justices are able to view, and in accordance with the requirements of any other law; Provided that:

(a) The channel’s title or description must reference the fact that it is meant for communication with the Judiciary, or for filings in court;

(b) The channel must be owned by the government; and,

(c) The Defendant must be notified of the filing of the complaint and must be able to see the complaint against them.

§1.1. Any Judge of the Court of Review, with the concurrence of another, may waive the procedural requirements if satisfied by special reasons that this waiver is necessary.

§2. A case containing classified information may be filed directly with the Registrar, but a redacted version of the complaint must be provided to the Respondent within a reasonable time.

§3. The case must specify if it is being filed in the Court of Review, or the Inferior Court. If the case does not state which court it is being filed with, the Inferior Court shall hear the case, and may transfer the case to the Court of Review if it determines that it has no jurisdiction.

§3.1. The Court of Review shall have no jurisdiction over cases filed in the Supreme Court.

§4. In the Court of Review, as the case may be, the filing party is known as the Appellant or Petitioner, and the responding party is known as the Respondent.

§5. Cases must be served on the respondent by the filing party in the manner of serving documents listed in the Criminal Procedure Code 2025.

§6. A respondent shall have the ability to make out of court submissions to the Court.

§7. The filing of a case does not have a suspensory effect on the matter at hand, unless otherwise noted, or if the Court otherwise orders.

§7.1. Any Judge of the Court of Review, with the concurrence of another<ref name="expartemisc" />, may order an emergency order with a suspensory effect on the matter at hand, if satisfied by special reasons that an emergency order is necessary. The registrar must assign and initiate the case as soon as possible after such a stay is issued.

Article 5: Summary rejection or hearing of cases

<ref name="expartemisc">Judiciary (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act 2025 passed 14 October 2025 and signed 15 October 2025.</ref> §1. Any Judge of the Court of Review may, with the concurrence of another and provided they both were assigned to a case, summarily dismiss that case filed but not initiated before the Court requesting for the court to exercise solely its jurisdiction under Article 3 §1 and §3. This clause shall not be construed to limit the power of the Court to ordinarily dismiss any case, where more extensive reasoning has to be provided.

§1.1. Cases filed under Article 3 §1 may only be summarily dismissed if filed ex parte (appeals not filed by a party in the original proceeding).

§2. No case dismissed in this manner shall be made with prejudice.

§3. No question of law stated to the Court of Review under Article 3 §2 shall be dismissed without a substantive answer to the question or matter to which the case is being brought.

§3.1. Notwithstanding any other law, the SDIOA has the jurisdiction to investigate improper dismissal of cases under this section.

§4. The Court shall not be required to conduct a hearing, and may make a decision based solely on the submissions of both parties.

Article 6: Costs

§1. The Court of Review may make orders as to costs.

§2. Costs shall be paid, in general, from the losing party to the winning party, unless the Court otherwise orders.

§3. No cost order shall exceed twice the biweekly salary of the President of SimDemocracy.

Article 7: Powers of Court

§1. The Court has all the powers and duties of the Inferior Court, except as otherwise specified by this Act, and shall have the additional power to remand, quash, or revise decisions or part thereof, by a lower court, and shall also have the powers conferred upon it by Article 3.

§1.1. “Duties” does not include procedural requirements not listed under this Act.

§2. The Court may receive evidence if it deems it necessary to do so.

§3. The Court shall have additional powers pursuant to the Schedule, which may be exercised on any case to which it has jurisdiction.

Article 7a: Rehearing

§1. If a panel of Judges of the Court of Review has made a decision on a matter, and that decision is challenged before the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court declines to hear the case without explicitly upholding the ruling of the Court of Review, the Court of Review shall have the jurisdiction to rehear the appeal through a panel of all the judges on the Court of Review.

§2. Rehearing shall not be granted unless there are special reasons for doing so.

§2.1. In this section, “special reasons” shall not include errors on the original conviction or acquittal which do not affect the merits of the case or the jurisdiction of the Court of Review.

§3. If one-fourths of the Court of Review decides to rehear a particular case, the case shall be reheard.

§4. In rehearing a case, the Court shall have the power to quash or revise its own decisions, and shall additionally have the powers listed in Article 3 and 7 relating to decisions by other bodies.

Article 8: Decisions binding

§1. Decisions by the Court of Review are binding on the Inferior Court.

Article 9: Duty to prevent violation of right against double jeopardy

§1. The Court must not cause a retrial to be held on any criminal case or part thereof, unless satisfied that the original conviction or acquittal is invalid, and a retrial is necessary because of a miscarriage of justice, or for special reasons.

§1.1. In this section, “retrial” includes revising or modifying a verdict.

§2. Special reasons shall not include errors on the original conviction or acquittal which do not affect the merits of the case or the jurisdiction of the lower court.

Article 10: Recusals

§1. Where a Judge of the Inferior Courts refuses to recuse on a case, the Court of Review shall have jurisdiction to review the decision on recusal.

§2. A panel consisting of a single Judge of the Court of Review shall hear the review.

Article 11: Time Limits

§1. A case must be assigned to a panel and initiated by the Registrar, unless dismissed or withdrawn beforehand, within:

(a) Three (3) days after filing, for cases exercising solely the jurisdiction of the Court under Article 3 §3; and,

(b) One (1) day after filing, for all other cases.

§2. A decision on a case must be pronounced upon –

(a) Within seven (7) days after initiated, for cases under Article 3 §2 only;

(b) Within seven (7) days after initiated, for cases under Article 10 only; and,<ref name="jamaica">Judiciary Act Making And Imagining and Creating an Amendment 2026 (JAMAICA) passed 9 January 2026 and signed 11 January 2026.</ref>

(c) Within twenty (20) days after all parties have finished making submissions to the court, for all other cases.

§3. Notwithstanding any other law, the SDIOA shall have the jurisdiction to investigate violations of the time limits.

Article 12: Chief Judge; Registrar

§1. There shall be a Chief Judge of the Court of Review who shall represent the Court, who shall be appointed by an absolute majority of all the Judges of the Court of Review.

§2. The Chief Judge shall have the power, from time to time, to make rules governing the procedure and practice of the court, except for that which is specified under this Act.

§3. If the Chief Judge is satisfied that a registrar solely for the Court of Review is necessary, they may appoint any person as Registrar of the Court of Review, and this appointment shall be revocable at any time.

§3.1. The Registrar of the Court of Review shall be paid a salary of 150 tau per week.

§4. The Chief Judge may order the creation and modification of no more than two new courtrooms, and the relevant roles, for the conduct of the Court, under the relevant category in the SimDemocracy Discord Server.

Article 13: Measures for dealing with vexatious litigants

§1. If the Attorney-General, the Bar Association Ethics Committee, or any Judge of the Court of Review makes an application to the Court of Review on the matter that any person has habitually and persistently and without any reasonable ground instituted vexatious legal proceedings in any court apart from the Supreme Court, whether against the same person or against different persons, the Court shall have jurisdiction over the matter.

§2. After giving the relevant person notice and an opportunity to be heard before a panel consisting of a single Judge of the Court of Review, the Court may order that no legal proceedings may be instituted by that person in any Inferior Court or Court of Review without permission from any Judge of the Inferior Court, for such length of time as the Court may deem necessary.

§2.1. The Office of Public Defenders shall assign a public defender to defend a person against proceedings initiated under this section.

§2.2. A Judge of the Inferior Court or Court of Review shall only grant permission for a person against which an order under §2 is issued, if satisfied that there is a prima facie ground for the proceeding, and that it is not an abuse of process of the court.

§2.3. This order shall not apply to constitutionally guaranteed writs and other process.

Part 3: Relevant Amendments

Article 14: Amendments

§1. Article 29 of the Courtroom Procedures Act 2025 shall be amended to read:

Article 29: Procedure for determining questions of law, and for interlocutory appeals

§1. A Pre-Trial or Trial Court hearing any case may at any time prior to the end of a trial, on application of any party or on its own motion–
 (a) Conduct an ancillary hearing to determine a question of law; or,
 (b) State a case to the Court of Review on a question of law.
  §1.1. The Court shall, so far as is possible, state the case through a question, which is answerable in the affirmative or the negative.
  §1.2. Should the Court decide to conduct an ancillary hearing, it may require each party to make submissions and decide on the question of law, before continuing with the proceeding.

§2. Any party may file an interlocutory appeal relating to any decision in court, to the Court of Review.
  §2.1. Such an appeal shall have a suspensory effect on the decision for a period of 48 hours, which the Judge may extend.
    §2.1.1. To avoid doubt, there is no suspensory effect on the ongoing pre-trial or trial, unless otherwise ordered.
    §2.1.2. To avoid doubt, nothing in this section affects the operation of Article 4, §7.1. of the Judiciary Act 2025.

§2. Article 3, §1 of the Another Court Improvement Act 2025 shall be amended to read:

§1. All filings, criminal or civil, containing references to user accounts, shall be required to include the user ID of the account mentioned, if the account is a discord account, and the Registrar shall reject any filing which does not include the user ID of any mentioned account. If it is not possible to include a user ID, this requirement shall be waived.

Part 4: Certification

Repealed <ref name="annoyedlawyers">Repealed by the Annoyed Lawyers Act, passed on the 7th April 2026 and signed the same day</ref>

The Schedule

Power to issue writs
Power to issue to any person or authority any direction, order or writ for the enforcement of any right conferred by any written law or for any other purpose, including the following prerogative orders:

(a) Mandatory Order (mandamus);

(b) Prohibiting Order (prohibition);

(c) Quashing Order (certiorari);

(d) Order for Review of Detention (habeas corpus).

Power to order interest to be paid
Power to direct interest to be paid on damages, debts, or other sums liable on account of any decision of the Inferior Courts.

Enforcement of Judgement
Power to order the enforcement of its own judgements through the normal enforcement methods (contempt).

References

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