Supreme Court of Liberia

Infobox_High_Court
court_name = Supreme Court of Liberia


imagesize = 100px
caption = Coat of Arms of Liberia
established = 1839
country = Liberia flagicon|Liberia
location = Monrovia
type =
authority = Constitution of Liberia
appeals =
terms = Lifetime tenure
positions = 5
website =
chiefjudgetitle = Chief Justice
chiefjudgename = Johnnie Lewis
termstart = 2006
termend =
termend2 = The Supreme Court of Liberia is the highest judicial body in the West African nation of Liberia. The court consists of the Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The justices hold court at the Temple of Justice on Capitol Hill in Monrovia. [The NEWS. “Liberia; Transforming the Judiciary”, "Africa News", March 16 2006.]

Jurisdiction and structure

The court was originally authorized by the 1839 Constitution of the American Colonization Society signed on January 5, 1839. [cite web|url=http://onliberia.org/con_1839.htm|title=Constitution of 1839 |date=2007|work=The Liberian Constitutions |publisher=Archive of Traditional Music at Indiana University|accessdate=2008-09-03] Subsequent constitutions continued to authorize a supreme court, with the 1984 Constitution as the most recent version. Powers and structure of the court are determined by Article VII of the 1984 constitution.cite web|url=http://onliberia.org/con_1984_4.htm#chvii|title=1984 Liberian Constitution|date=2007|work=The Liberian Constitutions|publisher=Archive of Traditional Music at Indiana University|accessdate=2008-09-03] The Supreme Court is granted original jurisdiction over constitutional questions by the Constitution of Liberia.Jallah, David A. B. [http://www.ialsnet.org/meetings/enriching/JallahDavid.pdf “Notes, Presented by Professor and Dean of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, University of Liberia, David A. B. Jallah to the International Association of Law Schools Conference Learning From Each Other: Enriching the Law School Curriculum in an Interrelated World Held at Soochow University Kenneth Wang School of Law, Suzhou, China, October 17-19, 2007.”] International Association of Law Schools. Retrieved on September 1 2008.] The court has appellate jurisdiction over other matters with the next lowest court being the 15 courts of the Circuit Court.

Headed by the Chief Justice, it is the highest body of the country's Judicial Branch. All justices are nominated by the President of Liberia and confirmed by the national Senate. The Chief Justice also serves as the top official of the Judiciary. The Supreme Court also has original jurisdiction for cases in which the country is a party and for those issues where ministers or ambassadors are involved.

Justices of the Liberian Supreme Court

*Johnnie Lewis, Chief Justice
*Francis Korkpor, Associate Justice
*Kabineh Ja'neh, Associate Justice
*Gladys Johnson, Associate Justice
*Jamesetta Howard Wolokollie, Associate Justice

References

External links

* [http://library.lawschool.cornell.edu/WhatWeHave/SpecialCollections/LiberianLaw/Supreme-Court.cfm Recent court decisions]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100489.htm U.S. Department of State]