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Andrew Inglis Clark's Draft Constitution, Chapter III of The ANDREW INGLIS CLARK’S DRAFT CONSTITUTION, CHAPTER III OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION, AND THE ASSIST FROM ARTICLE III OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES WILLIAM G BUSS* [Andrew Inglis Clark came to the Australasian Constitutional Convention in Sydney in 1891 with a complete Constitution acknowledged by him to be largely based on the United States Constitution. Particularly in respect of Chapter III, the Australian Constitution was significantly influenced by Clark’s American-based Constitution. This article analyses the way American constitutional law concerning the judiciary was inextricably woven into the Convention Debates about federal courts, federal judicial power and federal jurisdiction by the Australian framers, in 1897 and 1898 as well as 1891. Starting with a focus on the American art III incorporated in Clark’s Constitution, the article considers the framers’ arguments in the Convention Debates that produced the similarities and differences in the provisions adopted in the Australian Chapter III. The article, then, selectively discusses some instances in which the Clark–American background continues to be relevant to Australian constitutional law.] CONTENTS I Introduction ............................................................................................................ 719 II Overview: The Australasian Constitutional Conventions and the Evolution of Clark’s Constitution — A Concise Summary......................................................... 724 A The Australasian Constitutional Conventions............................................ 724 B From Clark’s Draft to the Australian Constitution .................................... 726 III The Vesting of Federal Judicial Power................................................................... 728 A One Supreme Court ................................................................................... 729 B Other Federal Courts.................................................................................. 733 C Other Courts Vested with Federal Jurisdiction .......................................... 734 1 Kable v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW)........................... 739 2 Mandated State Courts .................................................................. 741 IV Structuring the Federal Judiciary............................................................................ 745 A The Number of High Court Justices .......................................................... 745 B Appointment, Salary and Tenure of Federal Judges .................................. 748 1 Appointments ................................................................................ 748 * BA (Yale), LLB (Harvard); O K Patton Professor of Law, College of Law, The University of Iowa. I owe thanks to more people than a reasonable footnote will accommodate: to the two anonymous referees; to my Iowa colleagues for their feedback on my workshop; to law colleagues at Victoria University of Wellington (NZ), at the Australian National University and at the University of Melbourne, for comments and encouragement in various forms responding to my presentations on a piece of this article at each place and to my nagging questions about Australian constitutional law; to the thoughtful readers who have critiqued instalments; to the MULR editors for taking on and patiently editing such a large project; to an unbelievably talented and wonderful group of research assistants; to a secretary who does the impossible. I am especially grateful to University of Iowa Law Dean Carolyn Jones, University of Melbourne Law Professor Adrienne Stone, and Australian National University Law Professor Kim Rubenstein for the rewarding working time I have spent in Australia. 718 2009] Andrew Inglis Clark’s Draft Constitution 719 2 Salary and Tenure .......................................................................... 751 (a) Salary ................................................................................ 751 (b) Tenure and Removal ......................................................... 752 3 Grounds for Removal .................................................................... 753 4 Parliamentary Process: Adding ‘Proved’....................................... 758 5 An Aside: The Governor-General’s Role ...................................... 760 6 Deleting ‘During Good Behaviour’............................................... 761 7 The Murphy Affair......................................................................... 762 C A Comparative Question from Beginning to End...................................... 767 V Federal Court Jurisdiction: From the United States Constitution to the Clark Constitution to the Australian Constitution............................................................ 768 A Matters, Cases and Controversies .............................................................. 771 B Convention Debates and Effects over Selected Jurisdictional Matters...... 774 1 Sovereign Immunity ...................................................................... 774 2 Writs of Mandamus ....................................................................... 779 (a) Marbury v Madison........................................................... 781 (b) The Australian Framers’ Use of Marbury ........................ 783 3 Legislative Allocation of Original and Appellate Jurisdiction ...... 788 VI Coda: Clark, the Privy Council and the American Supreme Court ........................ 794 VII Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 799 I INTRODUCTION Anyone who cares about constitutional law and constitutional rights, about individual liberty and the rule of law, would be drawn powerfully to Andrew Inglis Clark. Clark was a romantic1 and sometimes a poet.2 He was also a man of the world who got things done — as a politician,3 as the Attorney-General of 1 See Alfred Deakin, The Federal Story: The Inner History of the Federal Cause, 1880–1900 (1944) 32; John Reynolds, ‘A I Clark’s American Sympathies and His Influence on Australian Federation’ (1958) 32 Australian Law Journal 62; Michael Roe, ‘The Federation Divide among Australia’s Liberal Idealists: Contexts for Clark’ in Marcus Haward and James Warden (eds), An Australian Democrat: The Life, Work and Consequences of Andrew Inglis Clark (1995) 88; Michael Denholm, ‘Motto: Moral, Social, Scientific and Artistic — Andrew Inglis Clark and Quadrilateral’ in Marcus Haward and James Warden (eds), An Australian Democrat: The Life, Work and Consequences of Andrew Inglis Clark (1995) 119, 119–20; John Williamson, ‘Andrew Inglis Clark — Liberal and Nationalist’ in Marcus Haward and James Warden (eds), An Australian Democrat: The Life, Work and Consequences of Andrew Inglis Clark (1995) 125, 126. See especially Andrew Inglis Clark, ‘Why I Am a Democrat’ in Richard Ely, Marcus Haward and James Warden (eds), A Living Force: Andrew Inglis Clark and the Ideal of Commonwealth (2001) 29, 29–35. Clark’s heroes included an Italian patriot (Mazzini) and a martyr of the English Commonwealth (Algernon Sydney, but not Cromwell): see, eg, Deakin, The Federal Story, above n 1, 32; John Hirst, The Sentimental Nation: The Making of the Australian Commonwealth (2000) 11. Clark’s indictment of Oliver Cromwell for betraying the Common- wealth in the 17th century was not romantic: see Michael Bennett, ‘Clark’s “The Commonwealth versus Cromwell”: Clark, Cromwell, and the English Republic’ in Richard Ely, Marcus Haward and James Warden (eds), A Living Force: Andrew Inglis Clark and the Ideal of Commonwealth (2001) 208, 208–9. 2 Richard Ely, ‘The Poetry of Inglis Clark’ in Richard Ely, Marcus Haward and James Warden (eds), A Living Force: Andrew Inglis Clark and the Ideal of Commonwealth (2001) 185. 3 Michael Roe, ‘Reviewing Clarkiana and Clark at Federation’s Centenary’ in Richard Ely, Marcus Haward and James Warden (eds), A Living Force: Andrew Inglis Clark and the Ideal of Commonwealth (2001) 1, 8–9; Marcus Haward and James Warden, ‘An Australian Democrat: The Life and Legacy of Andrew Inglis Clark’ in Marcus Haward and James Warden (eds), An Australian Democrat: The Life, Work and Consequences of Andrew Inglis Clark (1995) 1, 3; 720 Melbourne University Law Review [Vol 33 Tasmania,4 as a Justice of the Tasmanian Supreme Court,5 as a significant force in the founding, and later as the Vice-Chancellor, of the University of Tasmania,6 and as an intellectual and a writer.7 Australians should be especially drawn to Clark because he was one of the great framers of the Australian Constitution.8 He was also a loyal British subject who believed the Empire would be best served by an Australia which was fundamentally independent, though technically part, of the Empire.9 Americans might be especially drawn to Clark because Clark was especially drawn to what, at times, is genuinely exceptional in the American experience.10 He saw11 a continuity between the English Revolution of 1688 and its resulting Bill of Rights12 and the American Revolution of 1775 and the consequent United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.13 In a speech on 4 July 1876, Clark celebrated the principles the Australians shared with the American revolutionaries and concluded with a toast: ‘I give you the Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen North American British Colonies.’14 Clark was a dedicated ‘federalist’,15 joining with others who wanted to form a single Australian nation combining the then six separate English colonies
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