Adjudication and Court Processes

This document discusses the role and practice of traditional courts and specialty courts in Australia. It explores the functions of different courts, such as the federal court and the high court, and the development of specialty courts like drug courts and family and domestic violence courts. The document also highlights the benefits and challenges of these courts in providing justice and resolving conflicts.

Running head: Business Law Assignment 0
Adjudication and Court Processes
4/6/2019
Student’s Name

Adjudication and Court Processes 1
In order to provide justice to society, many of the courts are there that help public with
civil as well as criminal proceedings. Traditional courts are one of them. If to talk about
Australia, the judiciary is all different and independent from other arms of government. The
constitution established high courts and the power to establish other federal courts is available
with parliament. In Australia, all the states, as well as territory, has their own courts and well
defined legal system. These are collectively known as traditional courts. Different courts have
different functions. For instance, the federal court of Australia hears the matter on various
subjects such as taxation, native title, bankruptcy, industrial relation and many others
(Ag.gov.au, 2019). Moving towards the discussion of the role and practice of the High Court of
Australia, this is to state that this is the final court of appeal in Australia and the highest court of
the county. This is the court, which hears the appeal on civil as well as criminal matters from all
the courts of Australia. Further, the matters, which consist of disputes regarding meaning and
interpretation of the constitution, are also subject of hearing to high court (hcourt.gov.au, 2019).
The above-mentioned discussion was focused on the specific working of the lead
traditional court of Australia. Nevertheless, the other roles are also required to have a look upon.
Firstly courts play an important role in society and conflict. Many conflicts are there in a human
society that demands the resolution. Traditional courts of Australia fulfill this purpose. They hear
the parties and provide a decision based on facts and evidence presented by the parties. Further,
these courts help an irregulated society to become an ordered one. In conjunction with this, the
traditional courts ensure that people are following the law in the defined manner and those who
are not following, getting punishment for the same. In a summarized manner, this would not be
wrongful to state that these courts ensure the enforcement of the law by resolving a dispute
among parties.

Adjudication and Court Processes 2
In Australia, only traditional courts such as state, territory, federal and high courts are not
there. In addition to these, some other courts are also there which are known as Specialty courts.
These courts are not there since ages and have developed in a few decades only. Traditional
courts already have many burdens of cases and few of the cases are of nature that demands
special attention. Further traditional courts had certain judicial specific issues and in response to
these issues, specialty courts have been found. There are not very general reasons behind the
development of such courts but one may get the same after having an eye on the different type of
specialty courts. These courts have been developed on many issues and courts have established
in different states at different times.
Drug Courts are one of the significant examples of such courts. It first established in
New South Wales and then rest of the states of Australia. These courts have been developed
because of growing community concern about drug-related crime and the inability of traditional
courts to deal with such issues. The lead objective of drug court program is to reduce the level of
drug dependency and improve the health of participants. Family And Domestic Violence Courts
are other types of Specialty courts in Australia. These courts have been established for many
reasons. First, the matter of family violence has greater sensitivity and victims are required to
deal by specialized and skilled staff. For traditional courts, it was not possible to focus as much
on each case and therefore this specialty court was developed. These courts are able to deal with
the matter more efficiently. These courts have a special arrangement for victim safety; the same
develop the focus on specialized support service and specialized personnel (Alrc.gov.au, 2019).
The objectives of the development of Indigenous Courts are not general and vary according to
the jurisdiction, yet in an overall manner, this can be stated that the same provide unique and
alternative criminal justice procedure for Indigenous Australians and this is the reason because of

Adjudication and Court Processes 3
that this court has been established. These courts provide a forum, which helps to sentence the
offenders. The program operated by Specialty courts had huge success in the past. They have
been proved cost-effective for the public. In the year 2004, the evaluations of the success of such
programs have been seen and it has reported that there is a significant reduction in drug uses out
of the result of rehabilitation plans.
In order to discuss the benefits of such courts, this is to state that they do not only provide
justice but also work for the betterment of society in other ways too. They adopt different models
to deal with the victims and create a positive result for them. For instance, drug courts make the
offenders responsible for their rehabilitation (Courts.justice.wa.gov.au, 2019). They understand
the issue of offenders, share the knowledge and help them to reduce the drug uses. They only
focus on the offenders of drug-related crimes and in this manner develop a full focus on
individual offenders. The same goes with Family And Domestic Violence Courts. The judges
and prosecutors deal with the similar kind of cases on a daily basis and in this manner; they have
expertise on such matters (Hrlibrary.umn.edu, 2019). They understand the issue well and provide
justice accordingly. Such courts not only provide justice but also work for the betterment of the
victim. However certain issues are there with these courts which mainly includes lack of equity
of access and authorities need to work on it in order to bring the best possible outcomes (Bartels ,
2009). In a conclusive way, this is to state that specialty courts are the demand of the 21st
century. Courts these days cannot be expected to perform limited functions and specialty courts
cover this restriction of traditional courts.

Adjudication and Court Processes 4
References
Ag.gov.au. (2019). The courts. Retrieved From:
https://www.ag.gov.au/LegalSystem/Courts/Pages/default.aspx
Alrc.gov.au. (2019). Specialised family violence courts. Retrieved From:
https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/32.%20Specialisation/specialised-family-violence-courts-0
Bartels, L. (2009). Challenges in mainstreaming specialty courts. Trends and Issues in Crime
and Criminal Justice, (383).
Courts.justice.wa.gov.au. (2019). Drug Courts - The Positive Choice. Retrieved From:
https://courts.justice.wa.gov.au/D/drug_courts_the_positive_choice.aspx?uid=6930-9879-4982-
8750
hcourt.gov.au. (2019) Role of the High Court. Retrieved From:
http://www.hcourt.gov.au/about/role-of-the-high-court
Hrlibrary.umn.edu, (2019). Specialized Domestic Violence Court Systems. Retrieved From:
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/svaw/domestic/link/dedicatedcourts.htm