East Timor Supreme Court of Justice

Deolindo dos Santos in the courtroom of the Tribunal

The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) established a transitional judicial court service in 2000, consisting of a small number of Timorese judges, prosecutors, and public defenders.[2] On 7 January 2000, the first group of judges took their seats.

With the restoration of East Timor's independence on 20 May 2002, the Constitution became valid, which in section 124 calls for the creation of a Supreme Court. Its function and composition are regulated in section 125. Depending on the legal provisions, it can act as the first or second or only instance. It is composed of professional judges, magistrates of the ministry and jurists of merit. One judge is appointed by the National Parliament, the others by the Superior Council for Judicial Magistrates (Tetum: Conselho Superior da Magistratura Judicial).[1] The president of the Court is appointed by the president of East Timor from among the judges of the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, on 21 June 2007, East Timor witnessed the swearing-in of the first group of twenty-seven national judges, prosecutors, and public defenders, graduates of the legal training center in Caicoli, as well as permanent agents of sovereign bodies and a special representative of the UN Secretary General.[2] First, the Coordination Council oversaw the UNDP Justice Strengthening Programme's implementation, which trained public defenders and national judicial groups (which included the minister of justice, the president of the Court of Appeal and the public prosecutor-general). The programme had the support of the governments of Australia, Brazil, United States of America, Ireland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.[2]

Section 126 of the Constitution defines the competences of the court. It deals with all legal constitutional questions, checks for unconstitutional conduct by legal and administrative organs of the state and the constitutionality of ordinances, laws and referendums. Likewise, the court examines for unconstitutionality by omission or the unconstitutional rulings of lower instances.

In addition, there is the constitutional and legal examination of the legality of the formation, registration or dissolution of political parties and their coalitions. In presidential elections, the Supreme Court examines the legal requirements for candidates and, in all elections, the conformity of the actions in the electoral process with the valid law. Finally, the court examines the election results and officially announces them.[1]

Article 125 of the Constitution states that the Supreme Court shall consist of career judges or magistrates of the Public Prosecution or jurists of recognised merit. The number of members is determined by law. There shall be one judge elected by the National Parliament, and the others shall be appointed by the Higher Council of the Judiciary. All judges must be Timorese.[3]

Presidents

The term of office of the president of the court is four years and can be extended.

President of the East Timor Supreme Court of Justice

Name	Picture	Term of office	Notes
Cláudio de Jesus Ximenes		2003–2014	Twice confirmed in office, early resignation[4]
Guilhermino da Silva		2014–2017	Resigned in 2017 due to health reasons.[4][5]
Maria Natércia Gusmão Pereira		interim 2007–2009, 2015/16, 2017	[6]
Deolindo dos Santos		Since 28 April 2017	[7]