Geoffrey Watson SC

In the 1970s Australia was poised to move ahead of the world in allowing access to government information. Just before the federal election in 1972 the Australian Labor Party promised legislation for that purpose – but Mr Whitlam faced a hostile Senate and could not get the …

The Hon William Gummow AC

When the Judiciary Committee of the 1891 National Australasian Convention, under the Chairmanship of Andrew Inglis Clark, prepared its report (which is reproduced in Judicial Federalism in Australia: History, Theory, Doctrine and Practice at pp 208 to 210), there were in operation in what today could be identified …

Brendan Lim

History, theory, doctrine and practice. The subtitle of this splendid new book by Gabrielle Appleby, Anna Olijnyk, James Stellios and John Williams, Judicial Federalism in Australia: History, Theory, Doctrine and Practice (Federation Press, 2021), reminds us of the many different resources on which we can draw in …

Sarah Murray

Appleby, Olijnyk, Stellios and Williams’ book, Judicial Federalism in Australia – History, Theory, Doctrine and Practice (2021, Federation Press), is nothing short of a constitutional law aficionado’s delight – unravelling the mysteries and twists and turns of Kable through the combined expertise of the authors and the historical, doctrinal …

Erin F. Delaney

If, as A.V. Dicey once wrote, ‘federalism means legalism,’ it is particularly surprising that studies of federalism so often overlook a federal system’s judicial architecture and its operation. Exploring the ‘predominance of the judiciary in the constitution’ often begins and ends with analysis of …

Gabrielle Appleby, Anna Olijnyk, James Stellios & John Williams

This book is the result of years of collective and collaborative thinking around Chapter III of the Australian Constitution, and, to use Professor Sarah Murray’s phrase, the ‘unique form of Australian judicial federalism’ that it reflects today. We are delighted to see the book launched …

Alan Robertson SC

Dr Amanda Sapienza’s Judicial Review of Non-Statutory Executive Action is an important work because it has as its centre of attention non-statutory executive action, rather than dealing with it, however well, in a more general context of public law. In this second category I would include, for …

Cheryl Saunders

Publication of a serious work on judicial review of non-statutory executive power in Australia is long overdue and Amanda Sapienza’s book is very welcome for this reason. I have watched her ideas on these complex issues develop since her presentation to the Cambridge Public Law Conference in 2016. …

Jackson Wherrett

On one level, Dr Amanda Sapienza’s Judicial Review of Non-Statutory Executive Action is a novel examination of an under-explored area of administrative law. At the same time, it joins a very long line of scholarship that considers the principle of the separation of powers. More particularly, it draws on the …

Amanda Sapienza

Between the pandemic and my post-PhD career choices, an in-person launch of Judicial Review of Non-Statutory Executive Action, which was published by the Federation Press at the end of 2020, was out of the question. So I’m indebted to the editors of AUSPUBLAW for hosting this online …

Brenda Tronson

In this post I provide an overview, from a barrister’s perspective, of the approach I am likely to take when asked for advice regarding a potential judicial review application in relation to a Commonwealth administrative decision. While the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (Cth) (ADJR Act) …

Anton Moiseienko

In 2020, the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (JSCFADT) held an inquiry into the potential introduction of corruption and human rights sanctions, also referred to as ‘Magnitsky’ sanctions. The inquiry culminated in a report calling on the government to ‘enact stand alone …

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 …

Kieran Pender

In the preface to a collection of criminal cases published in 1730, barrister and writer Sollom Emlyn sung the praises of the British legal system. ‘In other countries the Courts of Justice are held in secret; with us publicly and in open view,’ the Irishman …

Benedict Coxon

On 1 January 2020, the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) (QHRA) entered fully into force, including the interpretive provision contained in s 48, which was modelled on s 32 of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) (Charter) and s 30 of the Human Rights …

Costa Avgoustinos

The Australian climate litigation movement has recently made significant inroads into the field of negligence. In Sharma v Minister for the Environment (2021) (Sharma), the Federal Court held that the Minister for the Environment owes a duty to Australian children to take reasonable care when considering approval of a coal …