Australia is a Federation with Commonwealth and State jurisdictions. One result of this is that it has two systems of courts: Commonwealth courts and State and Territory courts.
The Federal courts include:
The High Court is the highest court in the Australian judicial system, deciding on cases of special significance and hearing appeals from Federal, State and Territory courts.
The State courts in Australia have dual jurisdiction in both criminal and civil matters.
Unlike the other States of Australia which have a three tiered court structure, Tasmania has only two levels of courts: the Magistrates Court and the Supreme Court.
Tribunals are set up to to deal with specialist areas, such as workers compensation, mental health, planning and discrimination issues. The courts exercise a supervisory control on these tribunals to ensure that they operate fairly. Decisions of tribunals may be appealed in the Supreme Court.