Rule 14 of the Land Claims Court Rules regulates the admission and participation of an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) in proceedings before the court. It provides that any person or organisation with an interest in a matter before the Court may, subject to the approval of the court, be admitted as an amicus curiae.

A person or organisation may be admitted as an amicus curiae either by written agreement with all participating parties or by order of the Court or presiding judge, granted on application or on the Court’s own accord or upon application.

Rule 14(2)(a)–(b) provides that an application to be admitted as amicus curiae must be on notice, supported by an affidavit which must be served on all participating parties and set out:

1. the applicant’s interest in the matter;
2. the position to be adopted by the applicant; and
3. a summary of the evidence and submissions to be advanced, their relevance to the issues before the Court, and the reasons why such submissions or evidence will be useful to the Court and differ from those of the existing parties.

The role of an amicus curiae is to support the court, and it is obliged to describe the submissions which will be advanced by it, the relevance of such submissions to the proceedings and their reasons for believing that their submissions will assist the court and are different from those of the other parties.

Note: Publication of an amicus curiae notice on the Land Court website is supplementary to, and does not replace, compliance with the procedural requirements set out in Rule 14 of the Land Claims Court Rules.

Publish: All amicus curiae notices should be published on the Land Court website. Kindly email the notice to:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.