Gareth Griffith reviews the current debate about bills or charters of human rights. He surveys recent developments in those jurisdictions which belong to the Westminster tradition of parliamentary government and which, in their different ways, seek to reconcile the principles of parliamentary supremacy and judicial review – Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the ACT.

Gareth Griffith examines the potential implications for New south Wales arising from the recent debate on free speech, most notably in respect to the Commonwealth’s new anti-terrorism legislation. The paper focuses on three areas of the law, all of which impinge on the issue of free speech. First, it considers the law of sedition as...

Specialist committees are now a common feature of the Australian parliamentary landscape. This is especially the case in New South Wales, where parliamentary committees supervise most of the independent investigatory agencies, writes Gareth Griffiths in this survey of the role of committee.

The expulsion of an MP is an example of the power of a parliament to regulate its own constitution and composition for the purpose of preserving its dignity and efficiency, as well as to preserve public confidence in the institution. It is an ultimate sanction that is rarely used. This Briefing Paper sets out the...

The focus of this paper is on the legislative and political background to the Crimes Amendment (Aggravated Sexual Assault in Company) Bill 2001. It looks first at the present legal position and the historical background to the relevant provisions in the Crimes Act. The decision in Regina v AEM (jnr) & AEM (snr) & KEM...