The Māori Land Court (Māori: Te Kooti Whenua Māori) is the specialist court in New Zealand that hears matters relating to Māori land.
The Māori Land Court was established in 1865 as the Native Land Court of New Zealand under the Native Lands Act. As outlined by Williams, "government policy from 1858 onwards ... sought to introduce a rapid individualisation of ancestral Maori land in order to ensure the availability of most of that land for settlement by Pakeha settlers". A continuation of the native land policies of 1862, the intention outlined in the Preamble of the 1865 Act was “to encourage the extinction of such [native] proprietary customs”. One means of fulfilling this intention was to limit to ten the number of owners able to be issued a Certificate of Title.
The court caused major ructions within some iwi as the court gave a democratic power to ordinary Maori that previously had been the domain of chiefs only. Judges often heard weeks of oral evidence to prove a claim to the land. Judges were totally independent from the government and their decisions were binding on the government. Judges often made their own rules as points of law arose but the general principle was equity. One of the most dramatic cases was the claim of Ngati Mutanga for their previous land in North Taranaki in 1870. The entire iwi abandoned the Chatham Islands (which they had invaded in 1835) to come to the court hearing.
Land Court or Land claims court is a type of court which is charged with dealings over cases involving land titles and for disputes between landlords and tenants relating to agricultural tenancies. The exact field of jurisdiction varies by country.
The Land Claims Court of the Republic of South Africa was established in 1995 and has the same status as the High Courts of that country. The court specializes in hearing disputes that arise out of laws that underpin South Africa's land reform initiative. These are the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 1994, the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act, 1996 and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, 1997.This is in line with the South African Constitution which gave people and communities who had been dispossessed of land after 19 June 1913 as a result of racially discriminatory laws or practices the right to restitution of that property or to fair compensation. The Court also fulfils an important function in reviewing certain decisions of inferior courts.
Landécourt is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.