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 …

Anita Stuhmche

This series celebrates and analyses the ‘new administrative law’ as it has developed in Australia since the Kerr Committee’s report 50 years ago. The focus of this blog is the Commonwealth Ombudsman. My argument is that the institution is no longer fit for purpose. …

Gabrielle Appleby & Rosalind Dixon

Last week, the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law was delighted that the Hon. Margaret McMurdo AC launched the Feminist Judgments and Critical Judgments Projects website (www.criticaljudgments.com). Margaret was the first female president of an appellate court in Australia when she was appointed as the President of the Queensland Court 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.

Tristan Taylor

In 1996, the High Court struck down the validity of an ad hominem continuing detention legislative regime in the landmark case of Kable v Director of Public Prosecutions (1996) 189 CLR 51 (Kable). The principle established in that decision, has undergone significant development since. As it stands today, the principle will …

Anna Kretowicz

In March 2021, there were an estimated 2,100 undecided new applications at the Parole Board Queensland (the Board). While administrative backlogs are undesirable (one need only think of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, where a backlog of 53,000 applications in 2018 left the body in chaos), the problem here compounds with the legislative …

Josh Gibson

On 16 June 2021, the High Court delivered its judgment in LibertyWorks Inc v Commonwealth of Australia [2021] HCA 18 (LibertyWorks v Commonwealth). The case centred on the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act 2018 (FITS Act), a legislative scheme introduced to expose foreign influence effected by foreign principals within Australia. In …