Author: csaunders
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Institutional dialogue and human rights in Victoria
For those interested in the evolution of Gardbaum’s ‘new Commonwealth model of constitutionalism’ and the potential for the design of a rights instrument to promote inter-institutional dialogue a recent decision of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of the Australian State of Victoria deserves attention: The Queen v Momcilovic [2010] VSCA 50 Victoria…
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A constitutional conundrum in Fiji
There have been three coups in Fiji since independence. There have been two since the latest Constitution was enacted in 1997, following a respectable local constitution-making process. The Constitution was reinstated after the first of these, in a remarkably docile response to a judicial decision that it had not effectively been abrogated.
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The End of the House of Lords
What presumably is the last decision, ever, of the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, was issued on 30 July. The jurisdiction of the Committee (and more) will be exercised from October 2009 by the new Supreme Court for the United Kingdom, sitting in the historic Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square, London.
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The Spending Power in Australia
A recent decision of the Australian High Court has answered some questions about the source and scope of the federal spending power although many remain unresolved. Pape v Commissioner of Taxation [2009] HCA 23 also is of interest for a range of other purposes, including the interface between federalism and other institutional arrangements and comparative…