American Samoa: Federal Law & Court Issues

Because American Samoa does not have a federal court like the CNMI, Guam or USVI, matters of federal law arising in American Samoa have generally been adjudicated in U.S. district courts in Hawaii or the District of Columbia. Reasons offered for changing the existing system focus primarily on the difficulties of adjudicating matters of federal law arising in American Samoa, principally based on American Samoa’s remote location, and the desire to provide American Samoans more direct access to justice. This book discusses the current system of adjudicating matters of federal law in American Samoa and how it compares to those in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), and the reasons for or against changing the current system with potential scenarios and issues associated with establishing a federal court there.