SECTION 51(Xxix) of the AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION and ‘MATTERS of INTERNATIONAL CONCERN’: IS THERE ANYTHING to BE CONCERNED ABOUT?
Elise Edson* SECTION 51(xxix) OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION AND ‘MATTERS OF INTERNATIONAL CONCERN’: IS THERE ANYTHING TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT? ABSTRACT The ambit of s 51(xxix) of the Australian Constitution was most recently expounded by the High Court in XYZ v Commonwealth. Provisions of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) were upheld by a majority of the Court under the external affairs power as laws with respect to places, persons, matters or things outside the geographical limits of Australia. Accordingly, only a minority of the Court had direct cause to consider the Commonwealth’s alternative submission, namely, that the impugned provisions were laws with respect to a ‘matter of international concern’ and were, by virtue of that quality alone, sustained under the placitum. Despite the apparent alarm with which the submission was received by the Court, this article demonstrates that the so-called ‘international concern doctrine’ does not stand for a radical expansion of the boundaries of the external affairs power as presently understood. INTRODUCTION In 1901, John Quick and Robert Randolph Garran prophesied that s 51(xxix) of the Australian Constitution, vesting in the newly-created Commonwealth Parliament power over ‘external affairs’, ‘may hereafter prove to be a great constitutional battle-ground.’1 Over a century later, in XYZ v Commonwealth,2 the Commonwealth wielded a hitherto little-utilised weapon in its constitutional armoury. It was submitted that provisions of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) were laws with regard to a ‘matter of international concern’ and were, by virtue of that quality, sustained by s 51(xxix). In the event, the impugned provisions were upheld under the placitum by a majority of the Court as ‘laws with respect to places, persons, matters or things outside the geographical limits of, that is, external to, Australia.’3 Accordingly, only * B Int St (Flinders), LLB (Hons) (Adelaide); Associate, Lipman Karas.
[Show full text]