The Underlying Law Act 2000
The Underlying Law Act 2000 adopted the sources of the underlying law as customary law and the common law of England in force immediately before independence. The Act provides for methods and processes for developing the underlying law.
For commentary on the Act and its implications, see:
- Underlying Law Act 2000PacLII - Papua New Guinea Consolidated Legislation
- The Underlying Law JournalPacLII - 2012 only
The Underlying Law Journal: Developments in the Underlying Law of Papua New Guinea
- HeinOnlineJean Zorn and Jennifer Corin Care; Everything Old is New Again: The Underlying Law Act of Papua New Guinea, LawAsia Journal [2002] 61-97 (UniM access)
Finding Legislation
The Papua New Guinea National Parliament website includes Acts as passed 2012-current
- Note that although this is up to the current year, the PacLII Acts as passed appears to have slightly more recent Acts - see PacLII information below.
- PacLiiThe Papua New Guinea page on the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PACLII) website lists and links to:
~ Consolidated Legislation 1905-2014 (this includes Acts incorporating amendments)
~ Sessional (as made / passed) legislation 1974 to current (this database is completely up to date)
~ Laws of the Territory of Papua (1888 - 1945)
~~ Alphabetical Subject Index
~ Laws of the Territory of New Guinea (1921 - 1945)
~~ Alphabetical Subject Index
~ Legislative Indexes - including:
~~ alphabetical index of all Acts as passed - current to 2019
~~ alphabetical index of repealed Acts - current to 2019
Other sources of legislation
- Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAOLEX)The Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations maintains a database of national laws and regulations relating to food, agriculture and renewable natural resources. This database (FAOLEX) contains some Papua New Guinean legislation.
- CCH Online - Australia* This link opens in a new windowPapua New Guinea Income Tax Legislation is a subscription database from CCH Australia which includes Papua New Guinea income tax legislation, double tax agreements and tax cases as well as Papua New Guinea GST and Stamp Duties Legislation. The information is also available as a looseleaf service.
The Legislature
Papua New Guinea has a unicameral National Parliament. Parliament was first created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea. It became the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea in 1975 at independence.
See more on the About our Parliament page on the Parliament website.
National Research Institute
- National Research Institute - Papua New GuineaThe National Research Institute is Papua New Guinea's leading think tank on public policy and development-related issues and trends. The Institute advocates the need for research-based information to form the basis for policy debates and discussions.