InBrief

Chief Justice Robert French has delivered his address on The State of the Australian Judicature at the 36th Australian Legal Convention today, in Perth. The chief justice spoke about a conception of a national judiciary and a common law of the Commonwealth. He observed that:

The Australian courts, Federal, State and Territory, which administer justice according to that one system of jurisprudence, reflect the federal character of our constitutional arrangements in their geographical locations and jurisdictions, and have continued to do so despite powerful arguments for their rationalisation and unification. ... Many proposals for rationalisation of the judicial system have followed over the years .� None have come to fruition in any formal sense.� Nevertheless, there is today a substantial amount of personal and institutional interaction and even exchange between judges and their courts across Australia.� ... Broadly what has happened is the growth of a kind of extra-institutional judicial community and an institutional convergence supported by the activities to which I have referred.� It is also supported by principles emanating from the High Court in relation to the unity of Australian law, the integration of our judicial institutions and the implications of those things for mutual respect and recognition accorded to decisions of courts across national, state and territory jurisdictions.

18 September 2009