United States territorial court

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United States territorial courts are tribunals established in territories of the United States by the United States Congress, pursuant to its power under Article I of the U.S. Constitution. Most United States territorial courts are defunct because the territory under their jurisdiction have become states or been retroceded.

Among the United States territorial courts still in existence are:

• District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands
• District Court of Guam
• District Court of Virgin Islands

Their jurisdiction is similar to that of a United States district court, but despite the name similarity, they are not "United States district courts" (though they sometimes use that term). A "United States district court", created under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, exists only in a United States federal judicial district, which is found only in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

The territorial courts themselves also assume the jurisdiction of a United States bankruptcy court in their respective territories; they do not have separate bankruptcy courts under their supervision, as do the U.S. district courts.

[edit] "Territorial courts" that are not United States territorial courts

Though they could be considered "territorial courts" in a semantic sense (since their jurisdictions are not states), the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico are not U.S. territorial courts since D.C. and Puerto Rico are Article III federal judicial districts.

In addition, the District of Columbia has two other local courts, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which hear cases involving D.C. local law only. Though their jurisdiction is similar to state courts, like other federal courts they were created by Congress and their final appellate court is the Supreme Court of the United States. Like the D.C. federal courts, they are "territorial courts" in a semantic sense, but are not truly U.S. territorial courts. However, these courts are not Article III courts, as the judges serve only 15-year terms.

Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands have their own courts which hear cases involving commonwealth law. Though they could be called "territorial courts" by some (since a U.S. commonwealth is a type of territory), they are not U.S. territorial courts as they were created by the commonwealths themselves and not by Congress; except for being in commonwealths, they are the same as state courts.