Australia's Legal System

Australia was first claimed by Captain Cook in early 1770, but it wasn’t settled until 1788 when the first fleet of 11 ships arrived at Botany Bay, carrying 1,530 passengers - mostly convicts, as well as some marines and officers. They moved to Port Jackson to begin establishing a settlement. Specific prisoners were chosen for the trip, the ones with skills in building, farming and other things that would have been useful to create a “liveable” environment for the new inhabitants. The first “free” settlers only arrived in 1793, thus beginning the colonisation of New South Wales.

Australia became a commonwealth of the British Empire in 1901. It was able to take advantage of its natural resources to rapidly develop its agricultural and manufacturing industries and to make a major contribution to the British effort in World Wars I and II. Now, Australia has a prosperous Western-style capitalist economy, with a per capita GDP at the level of the four dominant West European economies. Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major exporter of agricultural products, minerals, metals, and fossil fuels.

Australian law has reflected the status of women in Anglo-Celtic culture. Today there are women in Australia from widely diverse cultural backgrounds and the law has a role in ensuring the safety, freedom, security and equality of opportunity for them all. As the status of women varies from culture to culture and changes over time, the law has had to adapt and evolve in order to fulfill its role.

In today's Australia the price of handling a substantial litigation matter is unobtainable for the average Australian, justice does indeed go to the highest bidder and “Unless you are a millionaire or a pauper, the cost of going to court to protect your rights is beyond you.” George Brandis, shadow attorney-general. To say that justice is earned and reserved for the population of Australia is a myth and it is true that legal aid community centres are grossly underfunded and explicitly for those in dire need of legal aid and do not represent the common Australian, there is no universal legal safety-net unlike the education and health systems.

Consequently, the indigenous Australians were considered a primitive race, with no obvious system of local law, and Australia was deemed uninhabited land under the doctrine of Terra Nullius - thereby, allowing Britain to claim sovereignty over it

The adversarial nature of Australia’s court system deal with facts and legal implications. Here lies the establishment of such principles that make the law

Having made visits to the Supreme, District and the Local Courts, I was able to obtain a better understanding of the Australian adversarial system. This report will attempt to analyze the distinctions between the different types of courts through primary observations. The report will also assess the models of justice in operation, the triviality of the lower courts compared to the higher courts and assess court procedure in each court.

Australian laws have two forms, public and private law. Public law is an individual versus the Australian government, for example, criminal law, constitutional law and environmental law. It involves public bodies, public matters and is the concern of everybody in Australia. Private law involves disputes between private citizens or entities, for example, contract law, family law and probate laws.

Common law became into effect after the Norman Conquest (A.D. 1066) consolidated their hold on newly won territory. One way was to take control over the legal/court systems. When this happen

On January 1 1901 Australia became a federated nation after calls from each of the colonies to become a united nation. In the mid 1800’s many colonies were founded and created their own legal systems that wasn’t under control from England. Even though they had their own independent legal systems the Monarch was still the head of state for all of the colonies.

It is recognised that Australia’s System of decision making in the court is in need of reform, if the

1) Describe the Australian legal system and explain where the Coroner’s Court of NSW is located within this. The Australian legal system is described as one of the most “common law” legal system. It was rooted on the influence of English colonial rule which came up since the 14th century (Teacher 2017). The Australian legal system is an adversarial system which means a common law system which has already been used in different court proceedings whereby parties were issued with the role of defining and investigating the issues.

The British sought to extend their laws to the land now called Australia and its Aboriginal inhabitants. The Laws of England were imported to the colony of New South Wales to the extent that they were applicable to those times and conditions. Despite Aboriginal resistance, England declared itself the sovereign or ruler of Australia. The established legal doctrine that enabled it to do this is known as terra nullius. The Euro-pean legal view at the time was that the Crown had absolute title to all land. Under the doctrine, colonising power such as England could ap-ply their own law to land which they peacefully occupied, if the land was uninhabited or was occupied by a people without settled laws and customs. Australia was declared to be a land

In the 6th century, the trial or ordeal began, later in the 11th century the common law developed in England and the Normans evaded England. The common law system was brought over to Australia in the year 1788. The courts of Equity were developed due to the common law courts are ‘unjust’. These courts introduced fairness into our common law system.

That English Common Law evolved through judge made laws and jurist activity cannot be denied. It is a fact that the English common law has its roots in the Roman Common Law. (Allison, 2000, p. 37) However the Roman lawyers did not distinguish between private and public law and jurisprudence.