Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/48512
Title: | Restraint and Radicalism: Sir John Latham's Constitutional Exceptionalism | Contributor(s): | Graham, Patrick (author) | Publication Date: | 2021 | Open Access: | Yes | Handle Link: | https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/48512 | Open Access Link: | https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/3912836/04-Graham-161.pdf | Abstract: | This article tracks the development of Sir John Latham's constitutional doctrine and asks if we can identify a conceptual explanation for it. Latham was the fifth Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia (1935-52). But he set out a vision of the Constitution in his earlier political career, advocating its sweeping reform. As a judge, Latham stridently avoided drawing even modest constitutional implications in the interpretive process. But the charge that his literalistic reading of the Constitution masked a politically-driven jurisprudence is flawed. Latham's interpretive formalism was primarily rooted in a much deeper fixation over public perceptions of legal integrity. Paradoxically, despite his grave concerns over the stability of the constitutional order, Latham's restraint permitted a radical expansion of Commonwealth power and, in turn, transformation of the federal balance. How did these countervailing forces - restraint and radicalism - arise, and then combine, to forge Latham's exceptional constitutional doctrine? | Publication Type: | Journal Article | Source of Publication: | Melbourne University Law Review, 45(1), p. 161-205 | Publisher: | University of Melbourne, Law Review Association Inc | Place of Publication: | Australia | ISSN: | 1839-3810 0025-8938 |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: | 480702 Constitutional law 480410 Legal theory, jurisprudence and legal interpretation |
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: | 230406 Legal processes | Peer Reviewed: | Yes | HERDC Category Description: | C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal | Publisher/associated links: | https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/3912836/04-Graham-161.pdf |
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Appears in Collections: | Journal Article School of Law |
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