Lieutenant Governor's Court

Phillip's commission extended his authority from the top of Australia to the bottom of Tasmania plus islands to the east of New South Wales.

Later, Governor Philip Gidley King was ordered to found a colony in Van Diemen's Land to prevent the French from laying claim to it.

Bowen chose Risdon Cove on the eastern shore of the River Derwent in the south-east for the first settlement of Europeans.

The introduction of the Lieutenant Governor's Court was the first step in providing adequate access to justice in the settlement.

The court was created by Letters Patent dated 4 February 1814 issued by King George III the reigning sovereign of England of the time.

The court had jurisdiction hear and determine summarily actions relating to land, houses, debt, contract, trespass, and just about any other common law or equitable case up to £50 sterling.

The abolition was on the recommendation of Commissioner John Bigge who was appointed by the British authorities to inquire into the state of the New South Wales colony.

Whilst he had a small knowledge of the law, he simplified procedure, reduced fees, and proceeded by common sense rather than legal niceties.

The report by the Select Committee of the House of Commons recommended that it was inappropriate for an appeal to be available for the amounts of money involved in proceedings before these types of courts.

Parties to disputes went to elaborate lengths to avoid taking claims over fifty pounds to the Supreme Court of Civil Judicature, which overwhelmingly sat at Sydney.

Bigge was to subsequently recommend the establishment of the Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land to remedy this situation.

[8] This has led Alex Lowe to conclude that Van Diemen's Land "was essentially a realm of legal amateurism".