The Legal Protection of Rights in Australia

by Matthew Groves (Editor), Janina Boughey (Editor), Dan Meagher (Editor)

Overview

How do you protect rights without a Bill of Rights? Australia does not have a national bill or charter of rights and looks further away than ever from adopting one. But it does have a range of individual elements sourced from common law, statute and the Constitution which, though unsystematic, do provide Australians with some meaningful rights protection. This book outlines and explains the unique human rights journey of Australia. It moves beyond the criticisms long made of the Australian position – that its 'formalism', 'legalism' and 'exceptionalism' compromise its capacity for rights protection – to consider how the many elements of its novel legal structure operate. This book analyses the interlocking legal framework for the protection of rights in Australia. A key theme of the book is that the many different elements of a fragmented scheme can add up to something significant, albeit with significant gaps and flaws like any other legal rights protection framework. It shows how the jumbled influences of a common law heritage, a written constitution, differing paths taken by jurisdictions within a single federal state, statutory and common law innovations and a strong dose of comparative legal influences have led to the unique patchwork of rights protection in Australia. It will provide valuable reading for all those researching in human rights, constitutional and comparative law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509919840
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	11/14/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Matthew Groves is Alfred Deakin Professor in the Law School of Deakin University, Australia.
Janina Boughey is a Senior Lecturer in the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law, Australia.
Dan Meagher is Professor and Chair in Constitutional Law in the Law School of Deakin University, Australia.
Matthew Groves is Alfred Deakin Professor in the Law School of Deakin University, Australia. He teaches and researches in public law, particularly administrative law and governance. Matthew's works include Aronson, Groves and Weeks, Judicial Review of Administrative Action and Government Liability (6th ed, 2017), Groves and Weeks (eds) Legitimate Expectations in the Common Law World (Hart Publishing, 2017). He is also editor of the Australian Journal of Administrative Law.
Janina Boughey is Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law. Janina's research focusses on the interaction between human rights and judicial review of administrative action, comparative administrative law, statutory interpretation, and the nature and limits of the constitutional powers of the judiciary and legislature to hold the executive to account. Janina has published widely on these topics, including a monograph, Human Rights and Judicial Review in Australia and Canada: The Newest Despotism? (Hart Publishing, 2017).
Dan Meagher is Professor and Chair in Constitutional Law in the Law School of Deakin University, Australia. He teaches and researches in constitutional law and statutory interpretation and has published widely in both fields. Dan co-edited (with Matthew Groves) The Principle of Legality in Australia and New Zealand (Federation Press, 2017) and is the comments editor for the Public Law Review.

Table of Contents

1. Rights, Rhetoric and Reality: An Overview of Rights Protection in Australia
Matthew Groves, Janina Boughey and Dan Meagher
2. Australia's Constitutional Design and the Protection of Human Rights
George Williams
3. Chapter III of the Constitution and the Protection of Due Process Rights
Anthony Gray
4. The High Court's Implied Rights Experiment
Tony Blackshield
5. The Reception of International Law in Constitutional Litigation – The Al-Kateb Battle and its Aftermath
Adam Fletcher
6. International Law, Administrative Powers and Human Rights: The Legacy of Teoh
Matthew Groves
7. The Australian Human Rights Commission
Edward Santow
8. The Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth): A Failed Human Rights Experiment?
Lisa Burton Crawford
9. The Nature and Limitations of Commonwealth Anti-Discrimination Law
Colin Campbell
10. 'Culture, What Culture?' Why We Don't Know if the ACT Human Rights Act is Working
Simon Rice
11. The Victorian Charter: A Slow Start or Fundamentally Flawed?
Janina Boughey
12. International Human Rights Treaties and Institutions in the Protection of Human Rights in Australia
Madelaine Chiam
13. The Recognition and Protection of Indigenous Rights
Edward Synot and Dylan Lino
14. Federalism, Public Interest Advocacy and Marriage Equality in Australia
Gabrielle Appleby and Adam Webster
15. Freedom of Religion
Nicholas Aroney and Benjamin B Saunders
16. A Fair Trial for Accused Terrorists
Rebecca Ananian-Welsh
17. A Search for Rights: Judicial and Administrative Responses to Migration and Refugee Cases
Emma Dunlop, Jane McAdam and Greg Weeks
18. Proportionality and the New Postwar Juridical Paradigm: A Challenge to Australian Exceptionalism?
Shipra Chordia
19. A Common Law Bill of Rights
Dan Meagher
20. Against a Constitutional Bill of Rights in Australia
Jeffrey Goldsworthy
21. Designing an Australian Bill of Rights: The Normative Trade-offs
Scott Stephenson