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Legal Index

Papua New Guinea case law arranged by subject. For each point of law: the leading authority, the cases that have affirmed or followed it, and — where the courts have divided — the decisions that take a different view.

This index is built from reported Papua New Guinea decisions available on PacLII — the Supreme Court, the National Court, and the Papua New Guinea Law Reports. Every case named here links to its judgment. Where a case could not be verified, it has been left out rather than cited from memory.

Each entry sets out the leading authority on the point and paraphrases what the court decided; then two or three decisions that affirmed or followed it; and, where they exist, decisions expressing a differing view. Papua New Guinea law is not settled on every question, and the index says so where that is the case.

The summaries are paraphrases written for this site. They are a starting point for research, not a substitute for reading the judgment — and not legal advice. See the disclaimer.

How to read an entry

Leading authority — the decision that settled the point, or which later courts treat as the starting place.

Affirmed or followed — later decisions applying the same rule. These matter: a proposition supported by a line of authority is far stronger than one resting on a single case.

A different view — decisions that departed, dissented, or reasoned differently. Where this appears, the point is contestable, and the competing reasoning is worth reading before relying on either line.

Citations follow PacLII’s own form: the neutral citation (for example [2005] PGSC 34), the court’s own number (SC789, N2182), or the law report reference ([1985] PNGLR 387).

Browse by letter

Topics are listed alphabetically. Choose a letter to see the points of law indexed under it. The index is being built out subject by subject; the letters below are those completed so far.

Abuse of process · Appeals · Damages

When a multiplicity of proceedings becomes an abuse, when an appeal needs leave, and what must still be proved once liability is decided.

3 topics → C

Contempt · Costs · Customary land

The four elements of contempt by disobedience, where the costs power comes from and when indemnity costs follow, and which court decides customary ownership.

3 topics → D

Damages · Default judgment · Defamation · Dismissal

The 3 per cent discount rate for future loss, the defence-on-the-merits requirement, the statutory defamation defences, and dismissal without a hearing.

5 topics → E

Election petitions

Strict compliance with section 208, the facts a petition must set out, and the criminal standard of proof where bribery is alleged.

2 topics → I

Indefeasibility · Interests in land · Injunctions

What registration protects, an unresolved split in the Supreme Court, equitable interests short of title, and interim injunctions.

3 topics → J

Judicial review

Leave and standing, the duty to exhaust other remedies first, the duty to give reasons, and the orders available on appeal.

3 topics → L

The Leadership Code

The structure of Constitution section 27, why each paragraph stands alone, and why personal gain is not an element of misconduct in office.

1 topic → N

Natural justice · Notice to the State

The constitutional duty to act fairly and to give reasons; section 5 as a condition precedent and the three limbs of “sufficient cause”.

2 topics → P

Pleadings and particulars

What must be pleaded with particulars, what happens to a claim that was never pleaded — and what happens to a defendant who never objected.

1 topic → R

Representative proceedings · Res judicata

Naming plaintiffs and proving authority to represent; and whether res judicata ends a case at once or must be pleaded and tried.

2 topics → S

Slip rule · Stay · Summary judgment · Sentencing

Reopening a Supreme Court decision, suspending a judgment pending appeal, Order 12 Rule 38, the worst-case principle and the homicide tariffs.

6 topics → U · V · W

Underlying law · State liability · Unreasonableness

How a rule of the underlying law is declared, when the State answers for its police, and the standard of unreasonableness that will undo a decision.

3 topics →

A note on citation

Papua New Guinea decisions carry more than one citation, and the index gives whichever appear on PacLII.

The neutral citation — [2005] PGSC 34, [2002] PGNC 144 — is PacLII’s own, assigned by year and database. The court number — SC789 for the Supreme Court, N2182 for the National Court — is the number the court itself gives the judgment, and is how practitioners usually cite it. The law report citation — [1985] PNGLR 387 — refers to the Papua New Guinea Law Reports, which ceased regular publication in the late 1990s; for later judgments the court number does the work.

Older decisions frequently appear twice on PacLII, once in the court’s own database and once in the PNGLR series. Where that is so, this index links to the fuller version.

On the courts themselves, see Go to Court. For the words used in these judgments, see the glossary.