The High Court and Australian Federalism

Bradley Selway and John M. Williams

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2005, vol. 35, issue 3, 467-488

Abstract: This article analyzes the constitutional role of the High Court of Australia during its first hundred years and the effect of that role on the Australian federation. The High Court has accepted as axiomatic that part of its function is the judicial review of legislation of both the federal and state legislatures. Its approach is relatively modest and “textualist.” That approach has been affected by historical changes, including Australia's independence from Great Britain. The decisions of the High Court have provided a framework for the development of the Australian federation over the last century in increasing the relative importance of the federal government at the cost of the state governments. However, those decisions are probably best viewed as reflecting, rather than creating, the changes and developments in the federation. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/publius/pji018 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:publus:v:35:y:2005:i:3:p:467-488

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Publius: The Journal of Federalism is currently edited by Paul Nolette and Philip Rocco

More articles in Publius: The Journal of Federalism from CSF Associates Inc. Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().