Legal Research
Cases
High Court Bulletin

High Court Bulletin

Link copied

Case Copied 19 August 2011 51 min read

Contents

On this page

HIGH COURT BULLETIN
Produced by the Legal Research Officer,

High Court of Australia Library [2011] HCAB 06 (19 August 2011)

A record of recent High Court of Australia cases: decided, reserved for judgment, awaiting hearing in the Court’s original jurisdiction, granted

special leave to appeal, refused special leave to appeal and not proceeding

or vacated.

1: Cases Handed Down .................................... 3
2: Cases Reserved........................................... 8
3: Original Jurisdiction ....................................23
4: Special Leave Granted.................................26
5: Cases Not Proceeding or Vacated ..................40
6: Special Leave Refused.................................41

SUMMARY OF NEW ENTRIES

1: Cases Handed Down

Case	Title
Haskins v The Commonwealth	Constitutional Law
Nicholas v The Commonwealth	Constitutional Law
Green v The Queen; Quinn v The Queen*	Criminal Law
Cush v Dillon; Boland v Dillon	Defamation
Byrnes v Kendle	Equity
Cumerlong Holdings Pty Ltd v Dalcross	Local Government
Properties Pty Ltd

Summary of New Entries

2: Cases Reserved

Case	Title
Williams v The Commonwealth & Ors	Constitutional Law
Wotton v State of Queensland & Anor	Constitutional Law
Moti v The Queen	Criminal Law
Strong v Woolworths Limited t/as Big W & Anor	Torts

3: Original Jurisdiction

Case	Title
Plaintiff M70/2011 v Minister for Immigration	Administrative Law
and Citizenship & Anor; Plaintiff M106/2011 by his Litigation Guardian, Plaintiff M70/2011 v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship & Anor
Shahi v Minister for Immigration and	Administrative Law
Citizenship

4: Special Leave Granted

Case	Title
ALH Group Property Holdings Pty Limited v	Contracts
Chief Commissioner of State Revenue
Perini v The Queen & Anor†	Criminal Law
Roadshow Films Pty Ltd & Ors v iiNet Limited	Intellectual Property
Federal Commissioner of Taxation v	Taxation and Duties
Bargwanna

1: Cases Handed Down

1: CASES HANDED DOWN
The following cases were handed down by the High Court of Australia

during the August 2011 sittings.

Constitutional Law

Haskins v The Commonwealth

S8/2011: [2011] HCA 28.

Judgment delivered: 10 August 2011.

Coram: French CJ, Gummow, Hayne, Heydon, Crennan, Kiefel and Bell JJ.

Catchwords:

Constitutional law (Cth) — Judicial power of Commonwealth — Constitution, Ch III — Validity of laws — Plaintiff defence force member — Plaintiff convicted of disciplinary offences and sentenced to punishment including detention by Australian Military Court ("AMC") established under Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 (Cth) ("Discipline Act") — Plaintiff subjected to punishment — High Court subsequently held invalid provisions of Discipline Act establishing AMC — Military Justice (Interim Measures) Act (No 2) 2009 (Cth) ("Interim Measures Act"), Sched 1, item 5 applied where AMC had imposed punishment to declare rights and liabilities of all persons to be same as if punishment properly imposed by general court- martial, subject to review under Sched 1, Pt 7 — Whether provisions of Interim Measures Act constituted usurpation of judicial power — Whether provisions had prohibited features of bill of pains and penalties.
Constitutional law (Cth) — Powers of Commonwealth Parliament — Acquisition of property on just terms — Whether acquisition by Commonwealth of plaintiff's cause of action for false imprisonment.
Torts — False imprisonment — Liability of…

Grounds of appeal

[14] The appellant contends that the primary judge erred in finding that the respondent had discharged the onus of establishing the matters required under the relevant provision.

[15] It was submitted that his Honour failed to give adequate weight to the evidence of the second witness, and that the findings of fact were not reasonably open on the material before the Court.

[16] The respondent, for its part, submits that no error is disclosed, and that the conclusions reached were well within the range of outcomes available to the primary judge.

Consideration

[17] It is convenient to deal first with the question of construction, as the resolution of that issue informs the remaining grounds advanced by the appellant.

[18] For the reasons that follow, we are of the view that the appeal should be allowed in part and the matter remitted for further determination.

Keep reading for free

Create a free CaseChat account to read High Court Bulletin and more:

Read every judgment in full
Ask AI and get answers linked to paragraphs
See how each paragraph was cited in later cases
Download judgments as PDF or Word

Continue with Google

One click creates your free account or signs you in.

By continuing you agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy.

Details

Case: [2011] HCAB 6
Decision Date

CaseChat Overview and Summary

Haskins v The Commonwealth and Nicholas v The Commonwealth were two cases that came before the High Court of Australia in August 2011. Both cases concerned the validity of military courts set up under the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 (Cth) and the Military Justice (Interim Measures) Act (No 2) 2009 (Cth). The court held that the provisions of the Interim Measures Act were invalid as they constituted an usurpation of judicial power and had prohibited features of a bill of pains and penalties. The court also held that the provisions of the Interim Measures Act did not prohibit features of a bill of pains and penalties and were not invalid as contrary to Chapter III of the Constitution. In the first case, the court held that the provisions of the Interim Measures Act did not provide for an adequate alternative to the invalid military courts and that the plaintiff was entitled to damages for false imprisonment. In the second case, the court held that the provisions of the Interim Measures Act provided an adequate alternative to the invalid military courts and that the plaintiff was not entitled to damages for false imprisonment. The cases were significant as they dealt with the separation of powers and the protection of individual rights within the military justice system.

Orders