Heard Island and McDonald Islands

• The Heard Island and McDonald Islands Act, and other Commonwealth of Australia legislation
• The laws of the Australian Capital Territory, which apply there
• Rules on the environment, fishing and visitors

• No courts sit on the islands, because nobody lives there
• Matters are heard in the courts of the Australian Capital Territory and the federal courts
• Appeals reach the High Court of Australia

There is no local legal profession.

• The islands are a World Heritage site, and nearly all of its law is environmental.
• ACT law applies, though the Territory's capital is far away.
• It contains Australia's only active volcanoes.

Australia, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Norfolk Island, New Zealand

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Heard Island and McDonald Islands 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.