Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Wills

This matter came before the High Court of Australia concerning a dispute involving Nationwide News Pty Ltd. The core of the argument revolved around the interpretation and application of section 299(1)(d)(ii) of a Commonwealth statute, and the broader question of the ambit of legislative power.

The legal issues before the Court included whether defences and principles of criminal responsibility were implicitly available in relation to offences created by Commonwealth statutes other than the Crimes Act. Specifically, the Court was asked to consider the application of State and Territory laws concerning criminal responsibility when an offence is not defined within the Crimes Act, by virtue of sections 79 and 80 of the Judiciary Act. The Court also had to determine the implications of these provisions for the task of identifying applicable common law principles, particularly for offences that might be of rare occurrence or not precisely replicate existing common law offences.

The Court's reasoning, as presented by counsel, indicated that it is a common practice in Commonwealth legislation for the statement of an offence not to be accompanied by a detailed exposition of defences and principles of criminal responsibility. Instead, where an offence is not created by the Crimes Act, the laws of the relevant State or Territory are applied through the operation of sections 79 and 80 of the Judiciary Act. This approach necessitates that a court exercising federal jurisdiction in a criminal case arising under a Commonwealth statute (other than the Crimes Act) must determine questions of criminal responsibility in accordance with the law of the State or Territory in which jurisdiction is exercised. The Court acknowledged that while the rarity of an offence might make identifying applicable common law principles more challenging, it does not absolve the court from performing this task.