High Court of Southern Rhodesia

High Court of Southern Rhodesia
High Court of Southern Rhodesia
Established	1899
Dissolved	1980

The High Court of Southern Rhodesia was a Southern Rhodesian court of record. It was established in 1899 and and ceased to exist in 1980 on the establishment of Zimbabwe.

History

From 1890 to 1894, there was no High Court in Southern Rhodesia, and the Administrator possessed the jurisdiction of a superior court of record. In 1894, the High Court of Matabeleland was created. In 1898, it was abolished by the Southern Rhodesia Order in Council, 1898, which established a court of record, styled High Court of Southern Rhodesia. It officially opened on 1 January 1899.

The High Court was continued under the 1961 constitution, which made new provisions for the appointment of judges. With the dissolution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and the disappearance of the Federal Supreme Court, a local appellate machinery had to be provided. Accordingly, the High Court was split into an Appellate Division and a General Division.

The High Court was continued under the 1965 constitution, which purported to rename it as the High Court of Rhodesia. The 1969 republican constitution preserved the High Court, which was now vested with "the judicial authority of Rhodesia". It was then briefly known as the High Court of Zimbabwe Rhodesia. Finally, it was superseded in 1980 by the High Court of Zimbabwe.

Jurisdiction

For most of the High Court's existence, appeals lay to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, although the High Court refused to recognise the Privy Council's jurisdiction at some point after 1965.

An intermediate appeal lay in the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony. After the creation of the Union of South Africa, most of the appeals which formerly lay to the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony (renamed to the Cape Provincial Division) lay to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa. In 1931 appeals to the Cape Provincial Division were discontinued.

An alternative appeal was established by the Rhodesian Court of Appeal Act 1938, which created a Rhodesian Court of Appeal for Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia. In 1947, Nyasaland joined the court, which became the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Court of Appeal.

In 1955, the right to appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa was replaced with a right to appeal to the Federal Supreme Court of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

Judges

Composition

Joseph Vintcent was the Court's first judge. In 1896 he was joined by a second judge, John Watermeyer. In 1930, the title of the Senior Judge was changed to that of Chief Justice. In 1933, a third judge was appointed for the first time.

Appointment and tenure

Under the 1898 Order, judges were to be appointed by a Secretary of State on the nomination of the British South Africa Company. Judges were to hold office during good pleasure, and could be removed from office by a Secretary of State.

In 1923, the BASC's role in government ended: under the Southern Rhodesia Constitution Letters Patent of 1 September 1923, judges of the High Court were appointed by the Governor in Council, and could only be removed by him after joint addresses by the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly in the same session for "proved misbehaviour or incapacity".