High Court hands down 4 judgments

Redland City Council v Kozik [2024] HCA 7. Judgment summary here.

Hurt v The King [2024] HCA 8. Judgment summary here.

The King v Anna Rowan – A Pseudonym [2024] HCA 9. Judgment summary here.

AB (a pseudonym) v Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission [2024] HCA 10. Judgment summary here.

Former ATO employee jailed for accepting bribes | National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC)

“GAGELER CJ AND JAGOT J. In the Preface to the second edition of Mason and Carter's Restitution Law in Australia, the authors referred metaphorically to the "restitution common of the law" being "tended by judges". They encouraged preparedness on the part of judges to "tear out weeds, however ancient".1 In the factual circumstances giving rise to the present case, Redland City Council ("the Council") tore out actual weeds from part of the actual common – in the form of waterways – within its local government area. The Council also dredged and removed silt, rubbish, and debris from the waterways, repaired revetment walls protecting the banks of the waterways from erosion and preventing subsidence, and improved the quality of the water in the waterways ("the works").”

“…since June 2021, Spain has been a judgment debtor in this proceeding in a very substantial sum (currently about €125 million which amounts to more than $200 million), and since April 2023 it has had no further possibility of recourse against the judgment, all avenues having been exhausted. Spain, which doubtless has the resources to pay, has nevertheless failed to pay any part of the judgment or the successive costs orders at three levels of the court hierarchy. Its refusal, or failure, to pay the judgment arises from peculiarities of the law of the European Union, but that does not detract in any way from its obligation to pay the judgment in Australia.”