Repeal of the Australian Courts Act (1828)
Wayne Morgan made this Freedom of Information request to Attorney-General's Department
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Dear Attorney-General's Department,
Can you please make available any or all instruments purported to repeal the Australian Courts Act (1828) or documentary evidence that the Australian Courts Act (1828) has been repealed?
This request is made under the FOI Act.
Yours faithfully,
Wayne Morgan
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
For general informatoin see the Wikipedia page on the law of Australia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Aus... ).
The Australian Courts Act 9 Geo 4c 83 of 1828, was: "An Act to provide for the administrati
on of justice in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, and for the more effectual government thereof and for other purposes relating thereto." It did not immediately come into force in South Australia. I don't know why but maybe it was because of the status of South Australia as a colony. At the time of the Imperial enactment, Queensland and Victoria were part of the colony of New South Wales so it also affected those areas an remained in force when the two areas became new and separate colonies. In South Australia, I believe that the Australian Courts Act was brought into force by the Acts Interpretation Act of 1909.
The effect of the Australian Courts Act (Imperial) was altered by ss 3 and 4 of the Australian Acts (Request) Act (SA) No. 95 of 1985. Section 3 of the Australian Acts (Request) Act (SA) asks and the UK parliament to introduce important legislative changes and also consents to the requested changes. Section 4 makes a similar plea to the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. The changes included the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council as well as many other changes.
It is not necessary to read the South Australian act and the acts of the other states of Australia because the Parliament of the Commonwealth and the Parliament of the United Kingdom each did as they were asked. For the Commonwealth, a person can read the Australian (Request and Consent) Act No. 143 of 1985; assented to: 4 December 1985 (https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C... ). For the United Kingdom, a person can read the Australia Act 1986 c. 2 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986... ).
To address "proclamation", it is worthwhile to read that the acts came into force on the day that they received the Royal Assent, not on a day of proclamation.
To address the issue of the effect of United Kingdom law on the Commonwealth of Australia (to be a different issue from the effect on the law of the states and territories) see s 1 of the Australia Act 1986 (UK): "Termination of power of Parliament of United Kingdom to legislate for Australia". Also read in s 3: "No law and no provision of any law made after the commencement of this Act by the Parliament of a State shall be void or inoperative on the ground that it is repugnant to the law of England, or to the provisions of any existing or future Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, or to any order, rule or regulation made under any such Act, and the powers of the Parliament of a State shall include the power to repeal or amend any such Act, order, rule or regulation in so far as it is part of the law of the State."
I will also post this annotation in the other request page.