Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T09:35:34.566Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

23 - The courts

from Part V - Inside the Australian State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Rodney Smith
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Ariadne Vromen
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Ian Cook
Affiliation:
Murdoch University, Western Australia
Get access

Summary

Australian courts – and the High Court in particular – are another political institution (Chapter 2) that plays an important role in Australian politics. Given the gender and status of judges, the courts often have been sites for the reproduction of social structures that produce social inequality in Australia (see Chapter 4). The fact that judges are neither elected nor answer to an elected body means that the courts play a curious role in any democracy (Chapter 1). At the same time, judges often uphold democratic rights, sometimes against elected parliaments that want to restrict them. These apparent paradoxes make the behaviour of judges an appropriate focus of study for behaviouralist political science (Chapter 3). The legal system is also replete with discourses on ‘rights’ and other terms, which produce and reproduce subject positions that are part of governance in Australia (Chapter 5). Rights discourse is, of course, international, reminding us that the politics of courts is simultaneously domestic and international (see Chapter 6).

Type
Chapter
Information
Contemporary Politics in Australia
Theories, Practices and Issues
, pp. 260 - 270
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blackshield, T Coper, M Williams, G 2001 The Oxford companion to the High Court of Australia Oxford University Press Melbourne
Patapan, H 1999 Separation of powers in Australia Australian Journal of Political Science 34 391 Google Scholar
Pierce, J 2007 Inside the Mason court revolution: the High Court of Australia transformed Carolina Academic Press Durham, NC

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×