East Timor

Government of Timor-Leste

Website of the East Timor Government, providing official publications, legislation, news and information about the government of East Timor, its history and the political system. The legislation section of the site provides selected recent laws and a few treaties; much of the legislation is available in English, but some of it is only in Portuguese. The legislation is divided into categories: the Constitution; business and investment; taxation; imports and exports; oil and gas; transport and communications and immigration. The site is available in English, Portuguese or Tetum versions.

Court Services of Timor-Leste

Website providing information on the courts of Timor-Leste (East Timor). There is information on the Court of Appeal including the names of the judges, full-text judgments and laws; the laws include the Civil Code, Penal Code, the Constitution, Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Criminal Procedure. Contact details of the District Courts are also given. The site is available to view in Portuguese only.

Timor-Leste Legal Education Project: Publications

This webpage provides full text access to the publications of the Timor-Leste Legal Education Project (TLLEP) at Stanford Law School. Included on the site are textbooks on Timorese law on professional responsibility, contract law, constitutional law and criminal law. A series of working papers on the laws of Timor-Leste are also provided. These cover topics such as family law, inheritance law, petroleum law and marriage law. All publications can be freely downloaded in full text (PDF) in English, Tetum and Portuguese.

Timor-Leste Legal Education Project

Website of the Timor-Leste Legal Education Project (TLLEP), a partnership between The Asia Foundation (TAF) and Stanford Law School (SLS). The TLLEP works with the National University of Timor-Leste to help develop legal education in Timor-Leste in Timorese universities, government institutions and non-governmental organisations. The TLLEP write legal textbooks which are made freely available online via the TLLEP website and foster cross-cultural exchange between educators and students in Timor-Leste and Stanford Law School.

Timor-Leste Ministry of Finance: Legal Framework

This section of the Timor-Leste Ministry of Finance website provides access to the laws outlining the structure and responsibilities of the Ministry. The laws are available to download in full text in English, Portuguese and Tetum. The Ministry also drafts laws dealing with customs, taxation and procurement issues and Timor-Leste laws covering these areas are also provided on the site.

Timor-Leste: Older legislation

This section of the Timor-Leste Courts website provides access to older laws which are no longer in effect in Timor-Leste. The Official Bulletin of Timor (Boletim Oficial de Timor), which publishes legislation and other official documents, is available from 1883 to 1975 (in Portuguese). The Portuguese Civil Code of 1867 is also provided, again in Portuguese, together with the Indonesian Penal Code in English and Indonesian.

Timor-Leste Official Journal

The Timor-Leste Official Journal ((Jornal da Republica) is available on the website of the East Timorese Ministry of Justice from 2002 onwards. The Journal publishes East Timorese legislation and other official material, in Portuguese. The website also has the East Timorese Constitution in Portuguese and Tetum.

Legal Research in Timor-Leste

Online guide to the law and legal resources of Timor-Leste written by Lindsey Greising who is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and a member of the New York Bar and Nelinho Vital who is Director of the National Department on Legislation in the Ministry of Justice for Timor-Leste. The guide was published in 2014 on the Globalex website and made freely available by the Hauser Global Law School Program at the New York University School of Law. There is an introduction giving background and historical information on the country and outlining recent conflicts.

World Law: East Timor

Section of WorldLII's World Law Index and Search service covering East Timor in South East Asia. A range of browse and search features provides access to materials relating to legislation, governmental and non-governmental organisations, treaties and international agreements, lawyers and journals. There are specific sections dealing with human rights, constitutional law, maritime law and refugees and asylum. A stored search will automatically query all of World Law for items about East Timor.

East Timor Law Journal

The East Timor Law Journal (ETLJ) published articles, East Timorese legislation and court decisions. The Journal started in 2004 and nothing new has been published since 2011. Legal materials published by ETLJ include Indonesian legislation relating to East Timor, laws of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and laws of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste enacted since independence in 2002.

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