All societies and communities have rules and laws that govern the relationships within that community or society. The Catholic Church has a body of law that we call Canon Law. The Tribunal is responsible, under the Bishop, to ensure that the rights of all the faithful are respected and that their obligations are observed.
One of the Tribunal’s works is to determine cases of marital nullity, this sometimes sees the Tribunal wrongly referred to as “the Marriage Tribunal” when in fact its responsibilities are much broader.
In Australia the Diocesan Tribunals work on an inter-diocesan level; that is Tribunals in the same region, in our case Queensland, work together on matters addressed to one of its member Tribunals.
The Tribunal also assists with requests from Tribunals across Australia and around the world.