International Law and the High Court of Australia

This comprehensive work examines for the first time the decisions of the High Court of Australia since 1903 that deal with matters of public international law. It traces the development of the Court's approach from initial uncertainty to a modern, more coherent, understanding of the place and relevance of international law in a dualist system which also recognises the role played by all superior courts to ensure that international law does not suffer from fragmentation by individualised interpretation.

The cases considered cover a wide range of subjects, including constitutional foundations, the limits of territory, human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, commercial and trade law, criminal and international criminal law, citizenship and the protection of refugees and the immunities of foreign States. The result is a detailed picture of the role of international law as an essential component of modern domestic legal analysis.