Australian Constitutional Law: Concepts and Cases is a highly accessible, clear and methodical overview of Australian constitutional law, integrating theory and doctrine. It is both comprehensive and concise. This book takes a conceptual rather than chronological approach to topics. With focussed rather than lengthy case extracts, the book explains what the law is and why various interpretations have been adopted. Clear explanations enable students to understand and engage with constitutional law, including its complexity and nuance. The book's explicit linkages between topics and clear delineation between case extracts and commentary help students make sense of Australian constitutional law as a whole. Conceptual and discussion questions at the end of each chapter facilitate student thinking and discussion about how the law has evolved and how the law is applied. Written by leading constitutional law scholar Luke Beck, Australian Constitutional Law: Concepts and Cases is invaluable for students engaging with Australian constitutional law.

This book provides an engaging and distinctive treatment for anyone seeking to understand the significance and interpretation of the Constitution.

Australian Medical Liability is a comprehensive handbook focusing on medical liability in the context of the civil liability legislation across Australia. This thoroughly revised second edition provides a detailed and in depth commentary on the elements of medical liability caselaw and legislation.

The fourth edition of this work has involved a thorough rewrite. Each chapter has been looked at again from beginning to end, with fresh choices in some cases made for extracts to bring the book up to date for new materials and scholarship and some material rewritten to provide clearer explanation. While all chapters contain changes, some have involved a more fundamental rewrite. The Supplement below, details changes from the 3rd edition to the 4th edition. For example, the chapters on the executive as well as characterisation and the trade and commerce power have been rewritten to provide a more straightforward structure and to provide greater clarity and contemporary relevance. Other changes have been made in order to restructure the book and to provide room for the substantial new material. Overall, the book is roughly the same length as the last edition due to cuts and streamlining. This has also involved rethinking the placement of some material, such as to group together the grants and appropriations powers of the Commonwealth. The material dealing with human rights has been substantially restructured with the chapters dealing with the implied freedom of political communication rewritten to take account of new developments and to provide space for major new cases. The final chapter on constitutional change has also been reworked to include a section dealing on Bill of Rights issues as a contrast to that on the republic.

Providing an interdisciplinary overview of Australian constitutional law and practice, this Handbook situates the development of the constitutional system in its proper context. It also examines recurrent themes and tensions in Australian constitutional law, and points the way for future developments.

* The Rule of Law and the Australian Constitution, has been cited with approval and discussed by Edelman J in Graham v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, handed down by the High Court today (at [106] at [175])_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The rule of law is one of the most cherished political ideals in the modern world. Even though we disagree about what the rule of law means, we all seem to agree that it is a worthy goal, to which any good legal system should aspire. Yet, some argue that this is not enough; that the rule of law is too important to be left in the realm of politics, and must be protected by legal means.References to the rule of law now appear, with apparently increasing frequency, in case law from across the common law world. In some countries, it has been claimed that the government can never validly act in a way that is contrary to the rule of law. The position in Australia remains unclear. There is no mention of the rule of law in our constitutional text - but in the Communist Party Case, Dixon J said that the rule of law 'forms an assumption' of the Australian Constitution. This statement has often been repeated, but never properly analysed.Taking Dixon J's statement as its starting point, this book examines the extent to which the rule of law is protected and promoted by the Australian Constitution - indeed, how the complex and contested concept of the rule of law should be understood within the Australian constitutional order.This wide-ranging and engaging book combines theoretical analysis of the concept of the rule of law and constitutionalism with doctrinal analysis of the case law of the Australian High Court. It examines the nature and limits of legislative, executive and judicial power, and so should appeal to constitutional and administrative lawyers, scholars and practitioners. The book adds an Australian voice to global debates and a novel perspective on that enduring question of how to create 'a government of laws rather than of men'.