If you can see through the illusion, you are part of the solution
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Who may use the Court? To become Parties to a contentious case before the Court, States must both have access to the Court and accept its jurisdiction: Access to the Court is granted to all States that are Parties to the Statute of the Court (Article 35(1) of the Statute of the Court). All Members of Read More …
Two claims keep circulating about the founding of the Commonwealth. The first says the Crown answers to no one, because a clause binding it to the Constitution was quietly dropped before the document became law. The second says the Constitution itself is invalid, because the people voted on a draft that Parliament later changed before Read More …
Past commentary concerning the change in royal symbolism from the reign of Monarch’s prior to Queen Elizabeth II to that of King Charles III has suggested that the adoption of different crown imagery carries a deeper hidden meaning. Particular emphasis has been placed on the difference between the St Edward’s Crown used during Elizabeth II’s Read More …
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The Australian Constitution grants the Commonwealth Parliament limited legislative powers. Among those powers is s 51(xx), which authorises Parliament to make laws with respect to “foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth.” For more than a century, that provision has evolved from a comparatively narrow grant of legislative Read More …
Western Australia’s entry into the Australian Commonwealth occurred at a critical stage in the Federation process. Unlike the eastern colonies, which had participated in the constitutional conventions and had approved the Constitution Bill through referendums in 1898 and 1899, Western Australia joined the process only after the draft Constitution had already been settled and transmitted Read More …
When the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 was enacted by the Imperial Parliament, the final text differed in a number of respects from the draft approved by the Australian colonies. One of the less publicly discussed changes was the removal of the words contained in the original Covering Clause 2: . “This Act shall Read More …
The battlefield has always been a place where chaos threatens to overpower humanity. Throughout history, soldiers marched under banners of victory, yet civilians, prisoners, and the wounded often paid the highest price. Before the nineteenth century, the rules of war were largely unwritten, depending more on military custom than on legal obligation. Then, during the Read More …
In international humanitarian law, hors de combat is a term that sits at the intersection of precision and restraint. It is not a label for who someone “is,” but a description of what, in a moment of conflict, someone has become: a person who is no longer able to take part in hostilities and therefore Read More …
What is the myth of the Belligerent? Our readers have again asked us to explain the legal meanings of the terms belligerent and combatant. One of the more misleading themes found throughout the “Papers” and promoted by influencers is the repeated use of the word “belligerent” as though it applies to the entire civilian population Read More …