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The extension to other Realms of the reserve power to refuse a dissolution
JOINT WINNER OF THE 2002 NED KELLY AWARD FOR TRUE CRIME NON-FICTION COMMENDED FOR THE 2003 NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY AWARD Ronald Joseph Ryan was hanged in Melbourne on 3 February 1967, following his conviction for the shooting murder of a prison warder during a daring escape from the maximum-security Pentridge prison thirteen months before. The decision of the Victorian government in December 1966 to proceed with Ryan’s death sentence sparked immediate media condemnation and angry political protests, and put the Liberal premier, Sir Henry Bolte, under siege for the duration of the case. State governments around the country moved to abolish the death penalty in the 1970s and 1980s, and Ronald Rya...
Despite the Australian Constitution having been one of the most stable since its commencement in 1901, it is becoming fatally flawed. The Naked Australian Constitution examines these flaws and the lack of public appreciation of those defects. This is due to several serious errors, including the racial basis of its origin, and the misleading nature of its text—with the High Court having interpreted it in a remarkably subjective manner, undermining the few express requirements and freedoms in the Constitution while also applying concepts that are not required by the constitutional text. As a result, the Constitution is now what the High Court says it is, instead of what it was expected to be by its drafters. Most Australians have no knowledge of the Constitution or its operation, but with the growing subjective application of the Constitution, this constitutional digression requires remedy by a Constitutional review. Ian Killey argues that without review, the Australian people will eventually see the Australian Constitution for what it is rapidly becoming—an Emperor with no clothes.
This research monograph examines presidential constitutional conventions and the role they play in the political systems of four Central European countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. As primarily unwritten rules of constitutional practice, constitutional conventions represent political arrangements and as such are political in origin. Not only this, constitutional conventions, in general, and presidential constitutional conventions, in particular, have significant political implications. They shape both the everyday operation and character of regimes. Central Europe represents a particularly useful example on which this role of constitutional conventions can be studied and assessed.
Law and Democracy: Contemporary Questions provides a fresh understanding of law’s regulation of Australian democracy. The book enriches public law scholarship, deepening and challenging the current conceptions of law’s regulation of popular participation and legal representation. The book raises and addresses a number of contemporary questions about legal institutions, principles and practices: How should the meaning of ‘the people’ in the Australian Constitution be defined by the High Court of Australia?How do developing judicial conceptions of democracy define citizenship?What is the legal right to participate in the political community?Should political advisors to Ministers be sub...
The peace, order and good government (POGG) clause is found in the constitutions of almost all Commonwealth countries. Since its introduction, the clause has played a significant role in colonial and post-colonial constitutionalism in Commonwealth jurisdictions. This book is the first full length analysis of the various dimensions of the peace, order and good government clause. It argues that the origins of the POGG clause mark it out as an anachronistic feature of British constitutionalism when seen against a modern setting of human rights, liberty and democratisation. The book traces the history, politics and applications of the clause through the colonial period in Commonwealth territorie...
"[T]his work is comprehensive in its treatment of all aspects of Victorian constitutional law whether they be historical, jurisprudential or practical. Occasionally the author offers his own views upon the direction which the law has taken or should take, but in a manner which adds freshness to the text or adds interest for the reader.This is a legal text-book and is bound to be a standard text for many years to come. There is no other comprehensive work which covers Victorian constitutional law. But it is digestible in a way that many other text-books are not. It will provide a wealth of understanding and insight to teachers, students, practitioners, public servants, members of Parliament a...
Australia's constitutions tell only part of the story. They omit or barely mention many of the essential and well-known elements of the system of government, such as the cabinet, the prime minister or premier, ministerial responsibility or the opposition. This work fills that void by explaining the nature of conventions, how they arise, how they are altered, as well as their operation and development. This is a book for anyone who has an interest in understanding the complexities and mysteries of the unwritten rules of Australian systems of government.
This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to, and enquiry into, the rules of Western Australia’s (WA) system of government. The WA Constitution is not well known or understood ― or even easy to identify ― and this book provides an essential guide. It brings academic expertise and careful scholarship to the exploration of sometimes complex constitutional issues in a way that will be invaluable for those with specialist interest in constitutional law and government while also being engaging and accessible for a wider audience. In doing so, it combines authorial expertise from constitutional law and political science — something essential to a well-rounded understanding of the simultaneously legal and political nature of a Constitution.
In recent times Australia has developed into one of the world’s leading liberal democracies. Its governments have delivered continuous economic growth for more than three decades, even against the turmoil of a global pandemic. And the country’s highly competitive elections and strong political institutions operate within a stable and balanced federal system. In Australia’s Evolving Democracy a team of leading academic authors use an audit approach to critically explore national government institutions, as well as state- and territory-level politics, and to examine how each has contributed to or held back Australian political life as it has changed and diversified. For instance, the top...