Australian Federalism and the Debate Over a Bill of Rights

Bibliographic Data

ID6374261
AuthorsBrian Galligan, Rainer Knopff, John Uhr (0000-0001-5446-9742)
Year1990
Publication date1990-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublius The Journal of Federalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0048-5950 • E-ISSN: 1747-7107
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubjof.a037910
OpenAlexW2316154139
LanguageEN
Citations received4

Successive Australian Labor governments have tried to nationalize standards for the protection of rights either by means of a statutory bill binding on the states under the Commonwealth's much expanded external affairs power, or by further entrenching specific rights in the Constitution. All these attempts have failed for a variety of political and constitutional reasons including, importantly, the strength of Australia's established system of federalism and parliamentary responsible government. The article examines the constitutional issues underlying the debate over a bill of rights for Australia, arguing that Labor's attempts to implement a bill of rights have been inspired by a preference for more centralized government whereas the defeat of such initiatives indicates, the established strength of Australian federalism

Bill of rights · Commonwealth · Constitution · Constitutional law · Dual federalism · Federalism · Fundamental rights · Government (linguistics · Human rights · Law and economics · New Federalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Statutory law · Variety (cybernetics · Commonwealth, Australian Politics and Federalism · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal principles and applications · Public Administration

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