Australia is a federation of six states which, together with two self-governing territories, have their own constitutions, parliaments, governments and laws. This infosheet is about the national or central government, usually called the Federal Government, Commonwealth Government or Australian Government. However, state and territory governments are also based on the same principle of parliamentary government. It is recommended that this infosheet be read with Infosheet No. The Australian Coat of Arms signifies the national unity of Australia and is a sign of its identity and authority.
Parliamentary government. Parliamentary government means that the Executive Government comes from within the Parliament; responsible government means that the Executive Government is responsible to the Parliament. This is the central feature of a Westminster-style government following the United Kingdom model—in contrast to other systems of government where the Executive is quite separate and not directly answerable to the Legislature—for example, in the United States of America.
The separation of powers. Political theory recognises three powers of government—the legislative power to make laws; the executive power to carry out and enforce the laws; and the judicial power to interpret laws and to judge whether they apply in individual cases. The principle of the separation of powers is that, in order to prevent oppressive government, the three powers of government should be held by separate bodies—the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary—which can act as checks and balances on each other.
With parliamentary government the legislative and executive functions overlap, as the members of the Executive Government—the Ministers—are drawn from the Parliament. However, in the Australian system there are still checks and balances between the Executive and Legislature—Ministers are subject to the scrutiny of other Members of the Parliament led by an officially recognised opposition.
In addition, the Executive does not necessarily control both Houses of the Parliament see below. Infosheet No. The Parliament. The Constitution gives the legislative power of the Commonwealth—the power to make laws—to the Parliament. The Parliament passes legislation. Proposed laws have to be agreed to by both Houses of Parliament to become law. The two Houses have equal powers, except that there are restrictions on the power of the Senate to introduce or directly amend some kinds of financial legislation.
The Governor-General has a role in the legislative process by assenting to Acts. See later in this infosheet for more information about the role of the Governor-General. The Parliament also authorises the Executive Government often simply called the government or the Executive to spend public money by agreeing to government proposals for expenditure and taxation, scrutinises the administrative actions of the government and serves as a forum for the debate of public policy.
Another function of the Parliament under the Australian system is to provide from its membership the members of the Executive Government. After a general election the political party or coalition of parties with the support of a majority of members in the House of Representatives becomes the governing party and its leader becomes the Prime Minister. The composition of the House also determines who will form the official opposition.
The party or coalition of parties which has the most non-government Members in the House of Representatives becomes the opposition party and its leader becomes the Leader of the Opposition. The opposition has the officially recognised function, established by convention, of opposing the government. This subject is discussed in more detail in Infosheet No.
While the government has, by definition, the support of a majority of Members in the House of Representatives, the system of voting used for Senate elections gives greater opportunity to minority parties and independents, and the government often does not have majority support in the Senate. The Executive Government. Constitutional provisions. The Executive Government in practice. Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief. Home Affairs. Department of Parliamentary Services. Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. Department of the House of Representatives. Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. Department of the Senate. Prime Minister and Cabinet. These instruments were issued to establish institutions of government in a territory and to appoint a Governor and other government officials. Letters Patent were often issued to grant a right, office or title, or to ratify a treaty.
Orders in Council were often used to extend a UK statute to a territory. Selected Letters Patent and Orders in Council are published in the bound Statutory Instruments series within the numbered sequence and in its predecessor Statutory Rules and Orders if they were made as statutory instruments.
If made as prerogative instruments they sometimes appear in the appendix at the back of the volume as they are unnumbered. Prerogative instruments are not included on legislation. They are available in the patent rolls at National Archive which runs from to the present day.
Prerogative instruments are also sometimes published in the London Gazette. A good source of the Letters Patent and Orders in Council that established colonies and their institutions of governance is World Constitutions Illustrated, which is available through the electronic subscription database HeinOnline.
Some good starting points when researching a Commonwealth country's constitution and legal history are:. Dale W, Th e Modern Commonwealth B utterworths provides summaries of the legal and constitutional history of Commonwealth countries. Each entry gives details of colonial history, constitutional development, reception of law, administration of justice, and independence.
The work's primary function is a bibliography of constitutional and legal titles generated in or for the British dependencies until independence. Roberts-Wray K, Commonwealth and Colonial Law Stevens provides summaries of the legal and constitutional history of Commonwealth countries.
As well as works that aim to provide background to all Commonwealth countries, it is also worth checking for legal histories of individual countries. IALS Library has many of such legal histories in its collections. Law Australia History.
Law Jamaica History. Law India History. Here is a small selection of legal histories of Commonwealth countries in the IALS Library to illustrate the type of material available:. Ghai Y P, Public law and political change in Kenya: a study of the legal framework of government from colonial times to the present Oxford University Press Tripathi McHugh P G, Aboriginal societies and the common law: a history of sovereignty, status, and self-determination Oxford University Press Documents relating to independence of the Dominions.
The Dominions went through a gradual constitutional shift from self-governance to full independence, recognized in law by the Statute of Westminster Official documents and reports relating to the independence process include:. The Balfour Declaration, published in the Summary of Proceedings of the Imperial Conference, Cmd , stated that the United Kingdom and its Dominions were equal in status in domestic and external affairs, and "in no way subordinate one to another". The Proceedings are available online through the UK Parliamentart Papers database subscription database published by ProQuest and in print in the Library.
Documents relating to independence of other territories. With the exception of the Dominions, independence from the United Kingdom was normally via an Independence Act passed in the UK parliament.
The Act would state the appointed day when the UK government no longer had responsibility for the governance of the territory and no Act of the UK parliament passed on or after the appointed day would apply to the territory in question. The Constitution of the newly independent country was often scheduled to an associated Order in Council.
Unless stated otherwise, the country seeking independence would remain within the jurisdiction of the Privy Council and the UK monarch would remain sovereign. The attainment of republicanism was by way of a separate Republic Act. The names of the independence documents for all Commonwealth members is given in Halsbury's Laws of England , Volume 13 on the Commonwealth [at shelf GA2. Once you have the name of the Act, you will be available to find it in the various sources of UK legislation mentioned in the United Kingdom Research Guide.
Most countries have a written constitution and they are normally available on the government website of the country in question.
Other sources for locating constitutions include. Documents relating to the constitutional conferences that took place when the new constitution was being drafted can also be useful for constitutional law researchers.
See the section below on Conference proceedings for details of how to locate them. Sources of law in Commonwealth countries are often based on English sources and similarities do exist. In order to familiarize yourself with the main sources of legal literature from a particular country it is a good idea to refer to a legal research guide in the first instance.
These guides provide details of the key sources of law in the jurisdiction in question, in print and online. Guides are also available to help you search the Library Catalogue for legislation, law reports and books relating to individual countries. There is also a Databases Guide to help you find out which databases are available for different jurisdictions. It is an excellent source of information for the law resources and legal systems of jurisdictions of the world.
For each country it provides information on the legal history, legislative and judicial systems, and comprehensive bibliographic information on legislation Official Gazette, Session Laws and Codes and law reports. It also provides references to laws on particular subjects. It consists of a series of legal research guides for foreign and international jurisdictions.
Each guide provides a historical background to the legal system as well as information on sources of law. Alternatively try a Subject search for Legal Research Country, e. Here is a small selection of legal research guides for Commonwealth countries in the IALS Library to illustrate the type of material available:. Terms for legislation vary from country to country. Instruments of primary legislation are normally called Acts, Statutes, Laws or Ordinances in dependencies.
Sources of secondary legislation are Statutory Instruments, Regulations or Orders. Many Commonwealth countries have a federal system of governance, and these countries will create legislation at a national and provincial level. All countries publish legislation in print in some form either as individual session laws or in an official gazette and many countries reprint legislation in bound annual volumes with indexes and tables, though there is often a delay of several years.
Sometimes a commercial publisher publishes legislation on behalf of a government and this will be the only source of legislation. Some countries periodically publish bound revisions or consolidations in force on a particular date or alternatively publish legislation series that are constantly updated by reprinted volumes, supplements and loose-leaf updaters. These works are normally published by commercial publishers. See our Legislation guide for guidance on finding legislation in the library.
Recently enacted legislation is often freely available online, either on a government website or through the relevant Legal Information Institute see WorldLII for a full list. Free online versions normally only include legislation as enacted but increasingly effort is being made to incorporate amendments, especially in larger jurisdictions. For help with finding authoritative sources of free online legislation or the official gazette for a Commonwealth country, check the sources mentioned in the Legal Research Guides section above, or search Eagle-i , a database of high quality legal websites.
CommonLII , the Commonwealth Legal Information Institute, aims to provide a single online location where it is possible to search legal information from all Commonwealth countries for free. It includes more than databases from over 25 Commonwealth countries and links to legal websites in all Commonwealth countries, many of which provide access to legislation.
In larger jurisdictions commercial legal publishers often provide fully up-to-date legislation through a subscription based database. As well as providing the most up-to-date versions of legislation available, these commercial sources of legislation often also include value-added content, such as links to historical versions, related journal articles and cases, legislation citators, annotations, full-text search functionality and so on.
To find out which commercial databases are available via IALS Library for different Commonwealth countries, check the relevant Jurisdiction guide, the Databases guide, or look directly at the list of databases on the Law Databases page. The Commonwealth, as an organisation, does not produce any legislation of its own. For details of legislation made by the British government applicable to its colonies during time of the British Empire, please refer to the section on Imperial governance above.
Law reports and judgments in Commonwealth countries. The reporting of cases from internal courts of Commonwealth members varies considerably from country to country. Some countries have an official series of law reports, some have commercial series, some have an official series that is published by a commercial publisher, and some have very little law reporting at all.
See the guide on finding Cases for more details. Judgments handed down in higher courts are often made available on the court's website or through the relevant Legal Information Institute see WorldLII for a full list. For help with finding authoritative sources of free online judgments for Commonwealth countries, check the sources mentioned in the Legal Research Guides section above, or search Eagle-i , a database of high quality legal websites. It includes more than databases from over 25 Commonwealth countries and links to legal websites in all Commonwealth counries, many of which provide access to legislation.
As is the case with legislation, in larger jurisdictions commercial legal publishers often provide access to official judgments and commercial law reports through a subscription based database. These commercial databases often include value-added content, such as the ability to check the judicial history of a case, the subsequent treatment of a case, links to relevant journal articles and legislation, full-text search functionality and so on.
To find out which commercial databases are available for different Commonwealth countries, check the relevant Jurisdiction guide, the Databases guide, or look directly at the list of databases on the Law Databases page. Commonwealth-wide law reports, case digests and citators.
The following sources are either Commonwealth-wide in scope or cover several Commonwealth countries. Law Reports of the Commonwealth , published by LexisNexis, reports key cases of international significance from all Commonwealth countries.
It includes judgments not reported elsewhere. More recent volumes have wider coverage and include reports on other legal topics such as arbitration, conflict of laws, environment, human rights, immigration, property and tort. At the end of each year an annual Editorial Review including tables and index is published. This Review provides analysis of legal trends in the Commonwealth.
The index allows you to identify cases by name, jurisdiction or subject. It also allows you to search for cases that refer to other cases, or that refer to particular pieces of legislation or constitutions. Cumulative indexes are published periodically. The most recent cumulative index covers This series is shelved at GB1. It contains summaries of human rights cases from domestic courts across the Commonwealth. In each issue it is possible to look up cases by name, jurisdiction and subject.
The printed version is available in the library on shelf SG Commonwealth Lawyer is the journal of the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association, published three times per year. Each issue contains a Case Notes section that summarizes key cases from around the Commonwealth. Each issue contains a section called Judicial Decisions which reports selected Commonwealth cases on a variety of topics.
A cumulative index is sometimes published, which allows you to look up cases by country or by case name. The latest cumulative index available is The journal is located at shelf GB1. It can be used to find cases on a particular subject, to find a digest of a particular case if you know the party names or citation, or to see where a case has been reported.
It is particularly useful for larger Commonwealth countries. The current edition can be found in the library at shelf GA2. IALS Library also has the original edition and the blue-band edition in the reserve collection. LawCite is a colloborative project between several Legal Information Institutes.
It is a freely available online citator that covers 18, law report and journal series from around the world. The current emphasis is on common law jurisdictions but the coverage is gradually being extended to civil law jurisdictions as well.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of nations united towards common values. This unique arrangement engenders a bank of goodwill that is unique among international organisations and provides a fluidity and sense of purpose which is shared across the governments of which it is composed. Queen Elizabeth II is Head of the Commonwealth and in this position she enhances the sense of family and vitality amongst the Commonwealth through her consistent stewardship.
The Commonwealth Secretariat undertakes the day-to-day operations of the Commonwealth and is headed by the Secretary General who provides it with management and executive direction.
The London Declaration freely affirmed the commitment of these countries to the recognition of the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth whilst also respecting the differing nature of their governments.
This diversity of character between governments and the longevity of the Commonwealth are evidence of the fluid, open nature of the institution. CHOGM follows an informal yet frank style along the lines of a family discussion, designed to foster familiarity and instinctively breed consensus.
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