Constitution of Samoa

Samoa became a United Nations trust territory in 1947, and began a transition towards self-government and independence.

[1] In March 1953 the New Zealand government issued a "statement of policy" proposing internal self-government for Samoa under a Westminster model, with a prime minister, cabinet, and legislature elected by universal suffrage.

[3] This adopted a series of broad principles for a future government, including a parliamentary system.

[4] One controversial provision was that rather than universal suffrage, only matai would have the right to vote and stand for election.

This was reluctantly accepted by the New Zealand government as "the present wish of an overwhelming majority of the Samoan people".

[6] The relationship with New Zealand would be decided at a future date, but would likely be modeled on that then prevailing between Tonga and the United Kingdom.

Part VIA, inserted in 2015,[11] establishes the ombudsman (Komesina o Sulufaiga) as an independent constitutional office.

Part VIII governs public finance, appropriation and expenditure, and establishes the controller and auditor general to audit and oversee them.

Part XII governs transitional issues, including the continuation of existing laws, the transfer of government property, the continuance of ministers, MPs, and judges in office as if they had been elected or appointed under the new provisions, and the transfer of existing court cases to the new courts.

[15] The courts' established approach to interpretation is to "consider the words of the provisions principally in issue, the constitutional and legal context in which they appear, and the wider social and historical context in which they are to be understood"[16] A secondary principle of interpretation is that "the Constitution is given its best effect when it promotes human rights"; where competing interpretations are available, "primacy should be given to whichever of the competing ideas best promotes the establishment of human rights practice in Samoa".