Alex Deagon

In my new book, A Principled Framework for the Autonomy of Religious Communities: Reconciling Freedom and Discrimination (Hart Publishing, 2023), I give substantive content to calls for a principled approach to reconciling the sometimes-competing imperatives of religious freedom and equality, through applying theological virtues such as dignity, humility, patience, generosity, kindness, forgiveness and compassion to create a peaceful coexistence of difference. The purpose of my book is to deploy these theological virtues to reconcile the tensions between religious freedom and equality.

Sanmati Verma

In its important judgment in Pearson v Minister for Home Affairs [2022] FCAFC 203, the Full Court of the Federal Court found that an aggregate sentence of imprisonment did not constitute a single ‘term of imprisonment for 12 months or more,’ and therefore did not attract the operation of the mandatory visa cancellation power at s 501(3A) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth).

This post discusses the Full Court’s decision in Pearson, the immediate legislative response by way of the Migration Amendment (Aggregate Sentences) Act 2023 (Cth), and the implications of that response – particularly for the people taken back into immigration detention as a result.

Stephen McDonald

In this post, I offer a critique of one aspect of the reasoning of the majority judges in the Commonwealth v AJL20 (‘AJL20’), where it was held that AJL20’s detention was, at all times, lawfully permitted and required by the Migration Act, notwithstanding the failure of Commonwealth officers to comply with the duty to remove him as soon as reasonably practicable.

Essentially, the majority reasoning permits and requires detention by the executive to continue, even though the purposes for which detention can occur are constitutionally limited, and even though the detention exceeds what is reasonably necessary to give effect to the permissible purposes established by the Migration Act. I argue that, in construing the Migration Act in this way, the majority in AJL20 have implicitly given it an operation that authorises and requires continuing executive detention in excess of constitutional limits if officers of the executive have failed to comply with other duties imposed on them by the Act.

Helen Irving

Alexander v Minister for Home Affairs [2022] HCA 19 (Alexander), handed down by the High Court on 8 June this year, involved a challenge to section 36B of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (as amended in 2020) (the Citizenship Act), which purported to empower the Minister to strip citizenship from an Australian dual national who, ‘by their conduct, demonstrates that the person has repudiated their allegiance to Australia’ and if the Minister is satisfied that ‘it would be contrary to the public interest for the person to remain an Australian citizen.’ The revocation of citizenship, the Court concluded, was punitive. Punishment for unlawful conduct, as it held in Chu Kheng Lim v Minister for Immigration, Local Government and Ethnic Affairs [1992], is a judicial function, made exclusive to the federal courts under Chapter III of the Constitution. Citizenship revocation, imposed by the executive, therefore breaches the constitutional separation of powers. Section 36B was accordingly invalid, and Mr Alexander, an Australian-Turkish dual national whose citizenship had been revoked after he travelled to Syria (and following an adverse ASIO report), remained an Australian citizen.

Chris Honnery

‘A sentence of death.’ The title of Edelman J’s dissenting judgment in Plaintiff M1/2021 v Minister for Home Affairs (M1) captures the stakes of visa cancellation matters in which a former visa holder claims to face serious harm in their country of origin.

In M1, the High Court addressed whether a decision maker is required to consider claims that raise a potential breach of Australia's international nonrefoulement obligations when determining if there is ‘another reason’ to revoke a mandatory visa cancellation under s 501CA of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (the Act). By majority, the High Court held that it is permissible to ‘defer’ consideration of non-refoulement claims raised in a request to revoke a visa cancellation on the basis that these claims will be assessed in a protection visa application.

Guy Baldwin

Since the shift in focus for supporting Commonwealth migration legislation from the ‘immigration’ power under s 51(xxvii) of the Constitution to the ‘aliens’ power under s 51(xix) in the 1980s, there has been a great deal of litigation before the High Court about the scope of s 51(xix). Perhaps the most influential judicial dicta …

Elisa Arcioni & Rayner Thwaits

The Chetcuti decision of 12 August 2021 is the High Court’s latest attempt to delineate a concept of constitutional membership. Here membership is understood as ‘non-alienage’; in practical terms, immunity to deportation. The question was whether Mr Chetcuti, a British subject who arrived in Australia before the advent of …

Sangeetha Pillai

It’s coming up to the 30th birthday of Australia’s policy of mandatory immigration detention for non-citizens who do not hold a visa. Throughout its lifetime, the policy has remained a controversial cornerstone of Australia’s migration law framework, facing – and withstanding – multiple High Court challenges.

Isolde Daniell

The Migration and Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Information Provisions) Bill 2020 (Cth) (the Bill) was introduced to the Commonwealth House of Representatives on 10 December 2020. It has since been considered by the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, and …

Chantal Bostock

As noted by colleagues, this blog series celebrates 50 years since the publication of the Kerr Report, which brought about great changes in Australian administrative law. In this blog post, I am going to try a new approach and attempt Eleanor Porter’s ‘glad game’, focusing on Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) ...