LAWS1052 Lecture 1: LAWS1052-Introducing-Law-and-Justice-OR-Foundations-of-Law-notes
Document Summary
1: the distinctiveness of the australian legal system (chap 1) Kable (page 4), reveals that while traditions of english law such as arguments about property and possession remained intact, the fact that the aforementioned convicts were allowed to sue reveals a departure from english law. This establishes aus law as diff and distinctive from the start. It has been fairly recently (maybe 20 yrs) that legal historians such as david neal have demonstrated the australian law being distinctive from its establishment. The legal system in australia is a complex web of relationships and methods of dispute resolution. Some of the characteristics of this system which derive from the english heritage include: a system of representative democracy, using parliaments to make laws. All the australian jurisdictions (commonwealth, state and territory) use systems in which people vote for representatives, who then sit in parliaments to make laws. The majority party in the lower house forms the government.
