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Daily wrap
Links to judgments handed down by the High Court yesterday and judgment summaries found below:
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.
Victorian Bar in spat over on-site childcare [The Australian paywall]
A bitter rift over how to spend a $600,000 cash surplus from Senior Counsel fees has split barristers in two camps: those who believe the funds should go to a million-dollar childcare centre, and those who say it should benefit ‘the whole of the Bar’.
Crisis in courtrooms: justice not served in this territory [The Australian paywall]
Aboriginal people accused of crimes in Alice Springs are increasingly forced to represent themselves after a staff exodus from the country’s largest Indigenous legal service.
Judge’s plea: Lawyers, come to Alice Springs [The Australian paywall]
The NT’s chief judge has pleaded with lawyers to come to one of Australia’s most dangerous jurisdictions to help a devastating staffing shortage.
Editor’s picks
“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.”
Mining billionaire Clive Palmer is actively considering a High Court challenge to Labor laws that would limit the amount of money a donor can give to a political party. A spokesman for the one-time federal MP said he was “absolutely considering a legal challenge
Greens leader urges any lawyers keen to help sue LNP over ‘scratchies’ to get in touch [Brisbane Times paywall]
Jonathan Sriranganathan says LNP flyers featuring his face contain “bare-faced lies”, as the battle for Brisbane’s City Hall enters its final days
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