Constitutional Law Australia - Interpretations

Constitutional Interpretation: Engineers’ Case and criticisms of Callinan J in the Workchoices’ Case.
By Mark Walker
Introduction

In the dissenting judgment made by Callinan J in the landmark New South Wales v Commonwealth (“Workchoices’ Case”), a strong criticism was mounted against constitutional interpretation methods employed in the judicial forum. Explicitly, this conjecture was focused at Isaacs J’s judgement in Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd (“Engineers’ Case”), where a textualism approach to constitutional interpretation was adopted. Callinan J expressed the Engineers’ Case as “less than satisfactory”, using “detached language” to discredit its literal methodology of interpreting the constitution. Such a claim is unsubstantiated and will thusly be deconstructed, so that it can clearly be seen that the approach taken in Engineers’ Case was manifestly apt for the purposes of constitutional interpretation.
Textualism at essence is an approach to statutory interpretation, whereby the courts are required to derive the meaning of a provision from its literal construction without a consideration of other factors such as the spirit or purpose.
Callinan J’s critique is not without its merits, and concisely described a textualism approach as disregarding important considerations such as “fundamental policy of the constitution, federalism, and the careful division of power... the framers intended”. Another criticism that Callinan J expresses is through a reluctance to read the constitution as a whole, despite admitting the willingness for Engineers’ Case to adhere to the ‘golden’ rules of construction. However, as convincing as this argument appears, it is not entirely accurate and tends to conveniently omit other important considerations necessary for constitutional interpretation.
Divergence from orginalism to textualism

The Engineers’ Case for its time was a revolutionary judgement which sought to overrule the concepts

Bibliography: Cases Abebe v Commonwealth (1999) 197 CLR 510 Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd (1920) CLR 129. Australian Boot Trade Employees’ Federation v Whybrow & Co (1910) 11 CLR 311. Australian Communist Party v Commonwealth (1951) 83 CLR 1. Baxter v Commissioners of Taxation (1907) 4 CLR 1087. Cheng v The Queen (2000) 203 CLR 248. Commonwealth v Tasmania (1983) 158 CLR 1. D’Emden v Pedder (1904) 1 CLR 91. Dugan v Mirror Newspapers Ltd (1979) 142 CLR 583. Eastman v Queen (2000) 203 CLR 1. Ex parte Boilermakers’ Society of Australia (1956) 94 CLR 254. Kable v Director of Public Prosecutions (1996) 138 ALR 577. Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1997) 145 ALR 96. Mabo v Queensland [no 2] (1992) 175 CLR 1. Melbourne Corporation v Commonwealth (1947) 74 CLR 31. New South Wales v Commonwealth 2006) 229 CLR 1. Port McDonnell Professional Fishermens’ Assoc Inc v South Australia (1989) 168 CLR 340. Printz v United States 521 US 898 (1997). 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