Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-c52kr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-08T02:36:16.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Constitutional Implications from Representative Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2025

Extract

There is undoubtedly a growing willingness in the High Court to find constitutional implications protecting individual freedoms or rights. There are a number of possible bases for this approach, including the separation of powers and the common law. In this context, the High Court's decisions in Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth (No 2) (the Political Advertising case) and Nationwide News Pty Ltd v Wills (which together I shall call the “principal cases”) are very significant. A majority of six judges in the decisions held both that the Constitution entrenches the system of representative democracy and that this in tum implies constitutional protection of free speech on political matters. The two cases were handed down on the same day and must be read together as. the judges' reasoning for these conclusions overlap between the cases. The significance of the principal cases is twofold. They constitute the clearest acceptance by the Court to date of an implied constitutional limitation relating to individual freedom. More importantly, they establish a new basis for finding further constitutional implications. If freedom of political communication is constitutionally protected because it is essential to representative democracy, other freedoms and requirements might be similarly essential and be similarly protected.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 The Australian National University

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable