High Court of New Zealand

The High Court of New Zealand, in Maori Te Kooti Matua o Aotearoa, is the superior court of general jurisdiction of New Zealand. Rules on the jurisdiction of the court and its judges are contained in the Senior Courts Act 2016, and its procedure is governed by the High Court Rules 2016, although it also has an inherent jurisdiction. It sits at eighteen locations throughout the country, with one stand-alone registry. The court was established as the Supreme Court of New Zealand in 1841 and renamed in 1980 after a royal commission report, which made the name Supreme Court available for the final appellate court created in 2004. It is a court of first instance for serious criminal cases such as homicide and for larger civil claims, and on appeal it hears cases from the District Court, other lower courts and various tribunals.