• Publication Date: January 5, 2007
  • EAN: 9781862876071
  • 480 pages; 6" x 8⅝"
Filed Under: Constitutional

State Constitutional Landmarks

$75.00

Product Description

Fifteen landmark cases and controversies of parliamentary government in the Australian colonies and States are recounted in all their political and legal drama by some of Australia’s leading constitutional scholars.

The amazing saga of Justice Boothby in the 1860s

Privy Council decisions establishing the plenary power of colonial legislatures

The dismissal of NSW Premier Jack Lang in 1932

The resolution of deadlocks between State legislative Houses

The making of the Australia Acts 1986

Debate on the separation of judicial power in the States

The survival of the NSW Legislative Council

The power to expel an MP in NSW

One-vote, one-value in WA

Affirmation of the rule of law in WA

The Franca Arena saga in NSW

The power to force ministers to produce documents in NSW

A NSW Sesquicentenary of Responsible Government publication.

Introduction: Australian States: cinderellas No Longer?

George Winterton

Justice Boothby: A Disaster that Happened

John M Williams

Plenary Within Limits: Powell v Apollo Candle

Keven Booker

Thomas McCawley v The King

Nicholas Aroney

Trethowan’s Case

Jeffrey Goldsworthy

The Dismissal of the Lang Government

Anne Twomey

Clayton v Heffron

Anne Twomey

Deadlocks in State Parliaments

John Waugh

Tonkin v Brand: Triumph for the Rule of Law

Peter Johnston

Armstrong v Budd and the Power of Expulsion

Gareth Griffith

The Making of the Australia Acts 1986

Anne Twomey

Egan v Willis and Egan v Chadwick: The Triumph of Responsible Government

Gerard Carney

Arena v Nader and the Waiver of Parliamentary Privilege

Gareth Griffith and David Clune

BLF v Minister for Industrial Relations: The Limits of State Legislative and Judicial Power

Fiona Wheeler

The Kable Case: A Guard-Dog that Barked But Once?

H P Lee

McGinty v Western Australia: Electoral Equality and the Demise of the “Implied Rights Venture”

Peter A Gerangelos

Index

George Winterton’s collection of essays attempts to fill a gap in Australian constitutional literature, and complements his earlier collection dealing with federal constitutional landmarks. …

At its best, this book describes the personalities, events and politics behind each of these landmarks, as well as summarising the legal issues. You don’t need a legal background to read it, although it would help. In some chapters, quite detailed legal analysis is given. But there is generally enough colour and anecdote to break up the pages of legal discussion. This is a great way to open up constitutional law to the general public. I would recommend the book to lawyers with an interest in public law, or anyone interested in Australian political history. – Law Institute Journal (Victoria), September 2007

There is nothing more dangerous than a book which contains detailed analyses which confute the reader’s dearly held perceptions. This is such a book. … There is much here to transform and entrance both the general and the specialist reader. More importantly, each of the contributors has the ability to place the potentially ‘dry’ legal issue in its social and historical context. As soon as the surrounding facts of any of the great controversies are explored, the topic tends to come alive …

The book is beautifully produced with a detailed index. For those who wish to dip into questions of state constitutional law it provides a fascinating and accessible vehicle. – Victorian Bar News Winter 2007

[A f]ascinating and readable insight into major Australian state constitutional landmarks …

The book, written by leading constitutional scholars, such as Anne Twomey, John Waugh, Gareth Griffith, Jeff Goldsworthy, H P Lee and John Williams, covers major landmarks (both cases and constitutional developments) that are of interest to lawyers, historians and the layperson. The drama in many of the essays brings alive the characters involved, and makes for easy reading. Topics covered include the nature of State legislature power, issues of intra-parliamentary battles between the two houses, parliamentary deadlocks, separation of judicial powers in the States, and the straddling between State and Commonwealth Constitutional law issues.

… Each essay provides an interesting thorough account of a particular issue in the arena of state constitutional matters.

… The Table of Cases and Statutes is thorough and extensive. The index, however, lacks the same detail. The book will provide a valuable resource for legal researchers, lawyers, teachers, students of Australian legal history, and anyone interested in constitutional issues. The structure of the book allows the reader to pick and choose those areas of [most] interest, but reading the book as a whole provides an overview of 150 years of major state constitutional developments. – Australian Law Librarian, Vol 15 No 1, 2007

Professor Winterton assembles 15 papers, contributed by a number of Australia’s foremost and most easily readable constitutional authors, which delved into some of the landmark cases and events which have helped shape the modern constitutional principles to which State legislative power is subject. … Those who take the time to read this book will certainly enjoy it…

… two real attractions of the book are the breadth of issues which it canvasses and the divergence in approach to those issues which has resulted from its being an anthology rather than the work of one.

… Professor Winterton has presented a collection of fascinating insights into the political and legal manoeuvring which eventually produced some of the leading constitutional principles which today regulate State governance. Eminently readable and thoroughly recommended. – Law Society of Tasmania newsletter, August 2007

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