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Australian Constitutional Law and Theory

Australian Constitutional Law and Theory

Commentary and Materials

4th edition

By Tony Blackshield and George Williams

CONTENTSREVIEWSSUPPLEMENTS

The fourth edition of this work has involved a thorough rewrite. Each chapter has been looked at again from beginning to end, with fresh choices in some cases made for extracts to bring the book up to date for new materials and scholarship and some material rewritten to provide clearer explanation. While all chapters contain changes, some have involved a more fundamental rewrite. The Supplements below, detail changes from the 3rd edition to the 4th edition in addition to Case and Chapter updates.

For example, the chapters on the executive as well as characterisation and the trade and commerce power have been rewritten to provide a more straightforward structure and to provide greater clarity and contemporary relevance. Other changes have been made in order to restructure the book and to provide room for the substantial new material. Overall, the book is roughly the same length as the last edition due to cuts and streamlining.

This has also involved rethinking the placement of some material, such as to group together the grants and appropriations powers of the Commonwealth. The material dealing with human rights has been substantially restructured with the chapters dealing with the implied freedom of political communication rewritten to take account of new developments and to provide space for major new cases. The final chapter on constitutional change has also been reworked to include a section dealing on Bill of Rights issues as a contrast to that on the republic.

Go to this link for details on our Abridged 4th edition. Both the Standard 4th edition and Abridged 4th edition volumes are identical ie chapter numbers and page numbers are the same in each volume. However certain chapters have been omitted from the Abrigded edition


CONTENTS

For detailed Table of Contents, see Supplement below.

Foundations
Political Liberalism
The Westminster Constitution
Penal Colony to Popular Sovereignty
Indigenous Peoples and Sovereignty
The Federal System
The Engineers’ Case
Constitutional Interpretation
Inconsistency
The Federal Parliament
State Constitutions
The Executive
The High Court and Constitutional Litigation
The Separation of Judicial Power
Judicial and Non-Judicial Detention
Characterisation and the Trade and Commerce Power
The Corporations Power
The Defence Power
International Law and the External Affairs Power
The Immigration and Aliens Powers
The Races Power
The Industrial Relations Power
Taxation and Excise
The Spending Powers
Intergovernmental Immunities
Civil and Political Freedoms
Economic Freedoms
Freedom of Political Communication
Freedom of Political Communication Applied and Extended
Constitutional Change

Appendices


REVIEWS

The text is not limited to students; it is equally relevant to practitioners, researchers, government officials and politicians who need to appreciate and understand the principles and basis for our constitutional framework. … The fourth edition is comprehensive in its coverage.

CJ King, Victorian Bar News

A superb book. One of the best casebooks in any country that I have ever come across.
Greg Taylor, Monash University

Reviews of previous editions:

[The third edition] is scholarly, informative, challenging and innovative. It certainly belongs on the shelf of anybody who is seriously interested in constitutional law.
Alternative Law Journal, Vol 28(1), February 2003

Blackshield and Williams's new edition is a comprehensive guide to Australian constitutional law. Its real value, distinguishing it from similar texts, lies in its comprehensive coverage of Constitutionalism, Constitutional History, Sovereignty and Government. Further, the third edition introduces or expands material directly addressing issues of Human Rights, the Bill of Rights debate and Reconciliation. …

[The book] provides an invaluable background resource for all things constitutional and governmental …. The third edition is a timely resource for Civil Libertarians who have an involvement in the processes of government.
Civil Liberty, Issue 189, June 2002
 

The book is much more than a casebook. It contains a wide range of materials, including excerpts from a broad range of writers and commentators. The contents of the book do provide, as the authors claim in their preface, 'the materials and commentary needed to understand the doctrines and theories behind the law'. More than that, it contains materials relevant to many questions of general interest such as the role of the courts, the appointment and removal of judges and the republican debate, to mention but a few. … Indeed it is surprising how much the authors have succeeded in including in the book. That is all to the good. For too long, graduates have emerged from our Law Schools ill-equipped to participate in the contemporary controversies relating to topics which they have studied at the Law School.
Sir Anthony Mason AC KBE

A book of many useful and original insights. The authors helpfully stand back from the detail and reflect on the big questions - which is, after all, what constitutional law is usually about.
Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG

An excellent basis for teaching Australian constitutional law.
Dennis Rose QC, Canberra Bulletin of Public Administration

A source book par excellence for students of Australian law, politics and government … a careful, expert selection of extracts with high quality commentary and effective finding aids.
Alan Rose, Victorian Law Institute Journal

Students of constitutional law and politics will find it indispensable.
The Australian Higher Education Supplement

The text is a rich well edited and widely sourced collection of materials capable of sustaining wide-ranging and extensive research perspectives and primary source material.
Peter Tsingos

Brilliant! The best Australian casebook I have read in any area of law.
Professor Neil Rees

A text which is dynamic and refreshing … a comprehensive compilation.
Cynthia Sneddon, Newcastle Law Review

It has rapidly and deservedly become the leading available casebook for teachers and students of law interested in the theoretical dimension to the subject.
Craig Arnott, Law Text Culture

To the eyes of an Australian teacher of law this is an exciting variation on the legal casebook genre. Its choice of readings beyond the boundaries of black-letter law and the reflectively pedagogical way it introduces materials and discusses issues are ground-breaking. This time the range of sources is often inspired.
Penelope Pether, Alternative Law Journal

There is no doubt that the book will be of immense interest and utility to all readers. It is a mine of well-presented information relating to a variety of issues of the greatest importance to all Australians.
The Law Letter (Law Society of Tasmania)

It offers much more than the usual cases and materials text. In my view - and in the view of others - it is the most comprehensive treatment of Australian constitutional law available today.
David Hodgkinson, Ethos (Law Society of the ACT)

This is an exciting book. In only two years since the first edition, it has established itself as the leading Australian student casebook on its subject. It includes a wide-ranging and interesting collection of materials, and sparse but efficient commentary. It is a delight to leaf through, and even more of a delight to read carefully on a given topic…
Students (and practicing lawyers) who read this book carefully will gain a rounded constitutional education. And they will have pleasure in doing so. When I first got the book, and read the extremely laudatory reviews on the back cover, I doubted whether any book could justify such enthusiasm. I was wrong. This is a book which one should own, read and revere.
Michael Gronow, Law Institute Journal (Victoria)


SUPPLEMENTS

Case and Chapter Supplements

This supplement contains files in PDF Format see below for instructions regarding PDF.

Sir Anthony Mason's launch speech

This speech was given by Sir Anthony Mason at the launch of the 4th edition, held at The Art Gallery of NSW on Friday 24 February 2006.

Details of 4th edition

This supplement contains files in PDF Format see below for instructions regarding PDF.


PDF FILES

To view PDF files you will require the Adobe Reader - free software for viewing and printing Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files - which can be downloaded from the Adobe Web Site.

The following link will take you to the Adobe website. Click here to download the viewer if you do not have it.

Get Adobe Reader

   

Published 21 February 2006
Publisher The Federation Press
Paperback/1500pp
ISBN 9781862875852
Australian RRP $125.00
Direct Price $115.00
International Price $115.00
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Law - Constitutional


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