Australian Indian Ocean Territories

• Commonwealth of Australia legislation about the territories
• The laws of Western Australia, which apply as Commonwealth law
• Local rules made by the Shire councils, and Australian federal law

• The High Court of Australia, the final court
• The courts of Western Australia and the federal courts, which hear most cases
• Local magistrates for minor matters, with visiting judges

Australian qualifications and admission in an Australian jurisdiction. Few lawyers live on the islands.

• Western Australian law applies on islands thousands of kilometres from Perth.
• Residents of the Cocos Islands voted in 1984 to join Australia, in a United Nations-supervised act of self-determination.
• Local people elect shire councils like those in the Australian states.

Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Australian Indian Ocean Territories as: Common law. It names the systems in order of importance. This territory is shown with the classification of the state it belongs to.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cook Islands, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, India, Ireland, Jamaica.

• JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.