SZQJH v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, SZQJH, sought judicial review of a recommendation made by the Second Independent Protection Assessment Review. The Minister for Immigration was the respondent. The core of the dispute concerned whether the applicant's application for judicial review constituted an abuse of process, specifically whether the doctrine of *Anshun* estoppel applied to bar the proceeding, or alternatively, whether special circumstances existed that would permit the application to proceed. The matter came before Emmett J of the Federal Court of Australia.

The primary legal issues before the court were whether the applicant's application for judicial review should be summarily dismissed as an abuse of process pursuant to rule 13.10(c) of the Federal Circuit Court Rules 2001 (Cth). This involved determining whether *Anshun* estoppel operated to prevent the applicant from bringing the proceeding, and if not, whether the applicant had established the existence of special circumstances that would justify the court entertaining the application. A further consideration was whether any new claims of jurisdictional error raised by the applicant possessed sufficient merit to constitute such special circumstances, and whether the state of authorities concerning section 36(2)(aa) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) provided sufficient guidance to be considered a special circumstance.

Emmett J reasoned that the applicant had not established special circumstances that would permit the proceeding to continue. The court found that the applicant's arguments regarding *Anshun* estoppel and the existence of special circumstances were not made out. The application was therefore dismissed.