Highcourt

Under Australian Legal system, there are three segregations of power which are legislative power, executive power and judicial power. Parliament makes the statutory law, government executes and enforces law and courts interpret the law. Government is responsible to parliament meanwhile it has control over lower level of parliament. Under this system, parliament, government and courts are all involved. The separation of three distributes equally and avoids the influence from a single dominant power.
The source of law in Australia is coming from two resources which are courts and parliament. Courts enact the judge-made law, also called common law, Parliament lays down statutory law. From s109 of the Cth Constitution law, when there is a contradiction between common law and State legislation, common law “prevails”. Common law is stare decisis, it allows judges apply doctrine of precedent to later cases having similar facts. When interpreting the law, courts makes decisions based on doctrine of precedent, however there are no exact two same cases, decisions contains majorities’ subjectivities. Under common law, the decision made by courts follow the hierarchy from local or Magistrates Court & other courts and tribunals to High Court of Australia. From the hierarchy, it illustrates High court of Australia has power over Supreme Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. In another way, High court of Australia has the ability and authority to overturn or refuse applying the ratio or decision of a lower court which are Supreme Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of the same jurisdiction.
As the highest court in the Australian judicial system (followed by Supreme Court of Appeal, Supreme Court, District Court or Country Court and Local or Magistrates Court & other courts and tribunals), the high court of Australia was established in 1901 by Section 71 of the Constitution, now operating under the Judiciary Act and the High Court of Australia Act 1979.
The functions of the High Court includes both original and appellate jurisdiction; power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of States; to interpret and apply the law of Australia; to decide cases of special federal significance including challenges to the constitutional validity of laws and to hear appeals, by special leave, from Federal, State and Territory courts. In addition, given the reason that the High Court is the court of final appeal for the whole of Australia, also with the ability to interpret the common law for the whole of Australia, not just the state or territory in which the matter arose, the high court of Australia take a leading role in Australian law, and has contributed to a consistency and uniformity among the laws of the different states.
Due to the principle operation of the high court and the jurisdiction dividing in its exercise between constitutional and federal cases which loom so largely in the public eye, it is the great body of litigation between individuals or even between individuals and government. As a result, the interpretation made by high court affect Australia dramatically and any mistake or misunderstanding may have misleading impact in the whole country.
In Australia, different states have their own State Supreme Court. They are the highest court within the state or territory. For example, the Supreme Court of Victoria is the superior Court in the State. Usually, the State Supreme Court can be divided into two divisions which are the Court of Appeal and the Trial and they deal with both civil and criminal jurisdictions. The State Supreme Court focuses on dealing with more significant civil cases and the most serious criminal matters. The State Supreme Court also joins in disputing elections and some other matters about the corporate law.
The judges in the State Supreme Court are responsible for not only single judge appeals but they also handle the trial and non-appellate work. Due to the State Supreme Court are always concentrate on the most serious criminal trials, there are twelve community members who have to work together to decide whether the person is guilty or not. Meanwhile, the State Supreme Court has unlimited jurisdiction in civil matters, while the monetary claims of the matter should be above $500000 (Supreme Court Victoria). The judges in the State Supreme Court are crucial for the court success and excellence. They must apply suitable rules to the cases with regards to the highest standards of competence and integrity. Sometimes in the State Supreme Courts, the judges may hold views contrary to the Government’s intention, while, the litigants could still appeal to higher courts. The Full Courts are mainly dealing with the appellate cases except the cases of murders. Furthermore, the litigants could appeal to the High Court, with is the final review court. Therefore, some unreasonable results may still have chance to be changed. Thus, the unconstitutional statute is much more significant than the judge of a State Supreme Court.
To sum up, this essay discusses the reasons of the unconstitutional interpretation made by the High Court have more negative the inadequate decisions made by a judge. This essay introduced the history of the high court of Australia, including the hierarchy of courts and components of Australia judicial system. Then a brief discussion of the importance of the court has been mentioned along with the main role of the high court. Lastly more details of appellate jurisdiction have been discussed as a key evidence of this statement.

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[ 2 ]. R. Kercher, ‘A History of Law in Australia’, An Unruly Child, viewed on 7th September, 2013
[ 3 ]. 2013, ‘Role of the High Court’, High Court of Australia, 2010 Commonwealth of Australia
[ 4 ]. 2013, ‘Operation of the High Court’, High Court of Australia, 2010 Commonwealth of Australia
[ 5 ]. Sexton, M 2003, ‘Owen Dixon’, The Miegunyah Press, pp424, viewed on 8th September, 2013 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/20/1055828478926.html [ 6 ]. ‘The court Hierarchy’, The Constitutional Centre of Western Australia, Dynamics in Government,
[ 7 ]. Beck, L 2012, ‘What is a Supreme Court of a State?’, Sydney Law Review, vol 34 pp295-297
[ 8 ]. ‘Court Structure: Court of Appeal and Trial Division’, Supreme Court Victoria