Open AccessAuthority to Decide
Author(s) -
Lee Aitken
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
university of queensland law journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1839-289X
pISSN - 0083-4041
DOI - 10.38127/uqlj.v40i2.5777
Subject(s) - jurisdiction , law , project commissioning , relevance (law) , political science , economic justice , state (computer science) , federal court , publishing , federal jurisdiction , work (physics) , engineering , supreme court , computer science , algorithm , mechanical engineering
To realise that there is no Court in Australia with unlimited jurisdiction is at one stroke to recognise the continuing importance of Justice Leeming’s standard work, and the relevance of this second edition. The ‘autochthonous expedient’, as Sir Owen Dixon named it, has much to answer for: it leads inexorably to a bifurcated system of state and federal courts, which has many toils and snares for the unwary. To compound the problem, the state courts enjoy a large amount of ‘invested’ federal jurisdiction, which means that on many occasions they exercise it without appreciating the fact that they have done so.