Damages assessment where defamatory publications combined with non-defamatory
Case Note by Peter Heerey AM QC A plaintiff suffers hurt, embarrassment and reputational damage as a result of the defendant’s publications. Parts of those publications are clearly defamatory; other...
View ArticleHigh Court: Civil forfeiture proceedings may need to await the finalisation...
Case Note by Simona Gory Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police v Zhao [2015] HCA 5 Civil forfeiture of asset proceedings may need to be stayed pending finalisation of the relevant criminal...
View ArticleCharacteristics, not labels, determine whether an entity is a constitutional...
Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia v Queensland Rail [2015] HCA 11 The High Court held that a statutory authority with...
View ArticleHigh Court on apprehension of bias: A person who brings charges has a...
Isbester v Knox City Council [2015] HCA 20 A person who brings charges, whether as a prosecutor or other accuser, has a conflict of interest in participating in a decision on matters consequential to...
View ArticleHigh Court upholds Commonwealth participation in offshore detention regime
Plaintiff M68/2015 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2016] HCA 1 The High Court has held that the Commonwealth’s participation in the detention of asylum seekers in Nauru was...
View ArticlePredictable penalties: High Court rules that Barbaro does not apply to civil...
Commonwealth of Australia v Director, Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate [2015] HCA 46 Civil penalty proceedings—Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (Cth) — submissions as...
View ArticleHigh Court dismisses claim for statutory termination payment by Tabcorp
Tabcorp Holdings Ltd v State of Victoria [2016] HCA 4 The High Court has confirmed that Tabcorp was not entitled to a statutory termination payment in the amount of $686.8 million following the...
View ArticleHigh Court upholds Senate voting reforms
Day v Australian Electoral Officer for the State of South Australia [2016] HCA 20 In a unanimous judgment the High Court upheld the constitutional validity of Senate voting reforms designed to put an...
View Article“Procedural” decisions and procedural fairness
The High Court has confirmed that the making of a “procedural” decision to consider exercising a non-compellable discretion to either grant a visa or to permit a further application for a protection...
View ArticleUnreasonableness and illogicality: a tale of two grounds
In recent decisions of the Federal Court (Wigney J) and the NSW Court of Appeal (Bathurst CJ), unreasonableness jurisprudence has been relied on to reject the argument that the “illogicality” ground of...
View ArticleChosen by the people: High Court dismisses challenge to suspension period of...
In Murphy v Electoral Commissioner [2016] HCA 36, the High Court dismissed the plaintiffs’ challenge to provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 (Cth) (the Act) which prohibit certain...
View ArticleWhen the content of procedural fairness can be reduced to ‘nothingness’
The Court of Appeal has found that a failure to disclose the “substance” or “gist” of confidential information relied upon when making an exclusion order under the Racing Act 1958 (Vic) will not...
View ArticleWhat a difference a Day makes: the High Court on disqualifying pecuniary...
In Re Day [No 2] [2017] HCA 14, the High Court determined that Mr Bob Day had an indirect pecuniary interest in an agreement with the Commonwealth, and was thereby disqualified from being chosen or...
View ArticleHigh Court resolves outstanding doubts concerning federal jurisdiction
In Rizeq v Western Australia [2017] HCA 23, the High Court had the opportunity to resolve some doubts about the sources of law in federal jurisdiction and about the operation of s 79 of the Judiciary...
View ArticlePower to detain under the Migration Act involves no exercise of judicial power
In Falzon v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the High Court dismissed a challenge to the validity of s 501(3A) of the Migration Act. The Court held that the provision, which provided...
View ArticleThe limits of secrecy
The High Court has read down a statutory secrecy provision that purported to shield information from production to a court on judicial review. In doing so, it has confirmed that s 75(v) of the...
View ArticleState legislatures cannot vest jurisdiction in executive tribunals over...
The High Court unanimously held that a State legislature could not vest jurisdiction in an executive tribunal to hear a dispute between residents of different States, but split 4:3 on why Issue Mr...
View ArticleQueensland electoral laws survive a challenge
Background The plaintiff, Mr Gary Spence, was a former president of the Liberal National Party of Queensland. Mr Spence initiated a proceeding after Queensland amended the Electoral Act 1992 (Qld)...
View ArticleThe UK’s latest on Parliament’s power to enact privative clauses
Background Privacy International challenged the lawfulness of certain warrants issued by the Secretary of State to authorise computer hacking by a government intelligence service. Privacy International...
View Article“Anonymous” tweets on political matters ― a cautionary tale for employees in...
Comcare v Banerji [2019] HCA 23 Background While Michaela Banerji was an employee in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, she broadcast more than 9,000 tweets, many of which were critical of...
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