Comments

This paper was presented at the Constitutional Law Conference, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Friday 20 February 2004. This paper may also be referenced as [2011] UNSWLRS 46.

Abstract

It would appear from the title of the present paper that the 1995 decision of the High Court in Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Teoh has had its day as one of the seminal cases in human rights and Australian public law. In one respect, following the decision of the Court last year in Re Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Ex parte Lam, that is true. We now can say with some degree of certainty that the notion that legitimate expectations may arise upon the executive’s act of ratifying a treaty in international law is likely to be overturned in any future case where the Court is presented with an opportunity to re-open that aspect of Teoh. However, I will attempt to highlight in this paper how Teoh may continue to play a significant role in future cases dealing with the interface between international and domestic law, both through the use of legitimate expectations and otherwise.

Disciplines

Immigration Law | Public Law and Legal Theory

Date of this Version

October 2011