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1. Australian Legal Institutions
Topic 3
2. Rule of Law The doctrine of English law expounded by Dicey, in Law of the Constitution, that all men are equal before the law whether they are officials or not
so that the acts of officials in carrying out the behests of the executive government are cognizable by the ordinary courts and judged by the ordinary law, as including any special powers, privileges or exemptions attributed to the Crown by prerogative or statute.
So far as offences are concerned, an offender will not be punished except for a breach of the ordinary law, and in the ordinary courts: there is here an absence of the exercise of arbitrary power. Further, the fundamental rights of the citizen; the freedom of the person, the freedom of speech and freedom of meeting or association, are rooted in the ordinary law, and not upon any special constitutional guarantees. Osborns Concise Law Dictionary
3. Legal Institutions The institutions which enforce and uphold this rule of law in Australia are:
Parliament: which makes the laws
The Executive: which administers the laws, and
The Judiciary: which declares the law, and what the rights of the individual are under the law.
5. Parliament The Queen as represented by the Governor-General or Governor
The Upper House Senate or Legislative Council
The Lower House House of Representatives or Legislative Assembly
6. s51: Powers of Parliament 51.The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to: -
(i.) Trade and commerce with other countries, and among the States:
(ii.) Taxation; but so as not to discriminate between States or parts of States:
(iii.) Bounties on the production or export of goods, but so that such bounties shall be uniform throughout the Commonwealth:
(iv.) Borrowing money on the public credit of the Commonwealth:
(v.) Postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services:
(vi.) The naval and military defence of the Commonwealth and of the several States, and the control of the forces to execute and maintain the laws of the Commonwealth
.(vii.) Lighthouses, lightships, beacons and buoys:
(viii.) Astronomical and meteorological observations:
(ix.) Quarantine:
(x.) Fisheries in Australian waters beyond territorial limits:
(xi.) Census and statistics:
(xii.) Currency, coinage, and legal tender:
(xiii.) Banking, other than State banking;
7. (xiv.) Insurance, other than State insurance; also State insurance extending beyond the limits of the State concerned:
(xv.) Weights and measures:
(xvi.) Bills of exchanging and promissory notes:
(xvii.) Bankruptcy and insolvency:
(xviii.) Copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and trade marks:
(xix.) Naturalisation and aliens:
(xx.) Foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth:
(xxi.) Marriage:
(xxii.) Divorce and matrimonial causes; and in relation thereto, parental rights, and the custody and guardianship of infants:
(xxiii.) Invalid and old-age pensions:
(xxiiiA.) The provision of maternity allowances, widows' pensions, child endowment, unemployment, pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services (but not so as to authorise any form of civil conscription), benefits to students and family allowances:
(xxiv.) The service and execution throughout the Commonwealth of the civil and criminal process and the judgments of the courts of the States:
(xxv.) The recognition throughout the Commonwealth of the laws, the public Acts and records, and the judicial proceedings of the States:
(xxvi.) The people of any race, for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws
8. (xxvii.) Immigration and emigration:
(xxviii.) The influx of criminals:
(xxix.) External Affairs:
(xxx.) The relations of the Commonwealth with the islands of the Pacific:
(xxxi.) The acquisition of property on just terms from any State or person for any purpose in respect of which the Parliament has power to make laws:
(xxxii.) The control of railways with respect to transport for the naval and military purposes of the Commonwealth:
(xxxiii.) The acquisition, with the consent of a State, of any railways of the State on terms arranged between the Commonwealth and the State:
(xxxiv.) Railway construction and extension in any State with the consent of that State:
(xxxv.) Conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one State:
(xxxvi.) Matters in respect of which this Constitution makes provision until the Parliament otherwise provides:
(xxxvii.) Matters referred to the Parliament of the Commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of any State or States, but so that the law shall extend only to States by whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or which afterwards adopt the law:
(xxxviii.) The exercise within the Commonwealth, at the request or with the concurrence of the Parliaments of all the States directly concerned, of any power which can at the establishment of this Constitution be exercised only by the Parliament of the United Kingdom or by the Federal Council of Australasia:
(xxxix.) Matters incidental to the execution of any power vested by this Constitution in the Parliament or in either House thereof, or in the Government of the Commonwealth, or in the Federal Judicature, or in any department or officer of the Commonwealth.
9. Westminster system (Responsible government)
11. SUPREME COURT ACT 1970 s 43 43 Sittings
(1) Any 3 or more Judges of Appeal constitute the Court of Appeal.
13. Judicial hierarchies
14. Constitution
A constitution is an expression of the political will of the people, a statement, or an agreement, as to how the people are to be governed, by whom, and with what responsibilities. A constitution is a document, or a group of documents, laws or conventions, which outline the system of government for that state.
15. Australian Parliament House
16. Constitution may be: Unwritten, resting mainly on custom or convention;
Written, in a formal legal form;
Flexible, capable of being amended by ordinary legislative enactment; or
Rigid (or entrenched), capable of being altered only by a special procedure such as a referendum.
17. William Charles Wentworth
18. Catherine Helen Spence Henry Parkes the Father of Federation is on the reverse
19. US Bill of Rights
20. CONSTITUTION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Article 4. All nationalities in the People's Republic of China are equal. The state protects the lawful rights and interests of the minority nationalities and upholds and develops the relationship of equality, unity and mutual assistance among all of China's nationalities. Discrimination against and oppression of any nationality are prohibited; any acts that undermine the unity of the nationalities or instigate their secession are prohibited. The state helps the areas inhabited by minority nationalities speed up their economic and cultural development in accordance with the peculiarities and needs of the different minority nationalities. Regional autonomy is practised in areas where people of minority nationalities live in compact communities; in these areas organs of self- government are established for the exercise of the right of autonomy. All the national autonomous areas are inalienable parts of the People's Republic of China. The people of all nationalities have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages, and to preserve or reform their own ways and customs.
21. Article 35. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.
22. Article 36. Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The state protects normal religious activities. No one may make use of religion to engage in activities that disrupt public order, impair the health of citizens or interfere with the educational system of the state. Religious bodies and religious affairs are not subject to any foreign domination.
23. Personal rights in the Australian Constitution s41: Right to vote
R v Pearson; Ex parte Sipka (1983) 152 CLR 254
s51(xxxi): acquisition of property on just terms
Minister of State for the Army v Dalziel (1944) 68 CLR 261
s80: Trial by jury
R v Archdall (1928) 41 CLR 128
s116: Freedom of religion
Krygger v Williams (1912) 15 CLR 366
24. s117:Equal treatment of state residents
Davies and Jones v State of Western Australia (1904) 2 CLR 29
Street v Queensland Bar Association (1989) 168 CLR 461
s92: Freedom of interstate trade
Bank Nationalisation case (Bank of NSW v Commonwealth (1948 76 CLR 1)
Cole v Whitfield [1988] HCA 18
Implied rights
Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth (1992)177 CLR 106
Leeth v Commonwealth (1992) 174 CLR 455).
25. Kenny has kept pet sharks all his life, and hopes to develop an aquaculture business farming sharks. After much trial and error, he has developed what he believes to be an effective shark food. He contracts with Smith Co. to make commercial quantities of this shark food, based on the formula provided by Kenny. Smith Co. are animal food manufacturers, but have not previously manufactured shark food. None of the ingredients used in Kennys formulation are novel and Smith Co have current supply contracts for all necessary ingredients.
Kenny receives and pays for the shark food. Unfortunately his sharks do not thrive they slowly begin to die. Kennys vet establishes that the cause of the shark deaths is a preservative used in the cod liver oil which forms part of the shark food made by Smith Co. This preservative had not previously caused problems for any animals and was only present in minute quantities.
Kenny wishes to commence proceedings against Smith Co for breach of contract. Advise Kenny. In your advice, consider the provisions of The Australian Consumer Law.
