Book Review: Conflict of Laws in Australia
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X6900300213 |
| Date | 01 June 1969 |
| Published date | 01 June 1969 |
| Author | J. L. R. Davis |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
1969] Book Reviews 307
input the less he is liable
to
be misled by points whether validly
or
questionably made by his author. The reader who comes light-loaded
to
Sawer's book should go away from it
not
only more heavily laden
but
also stimulated to study some
of
the federations in full context.
Whether he will go away strengthened in his federalist faith
is
another
matter, but he will
at
least have had
that
faith raked over in avery
salutary way. Sawer's own conclusion bears thinking about:
[I]f, however,
an
attempt
is
made to evaluate federalism in the
range
of
constitutional systems, Iwould say that it
is
aprudential
system best suited to the relatively stable, satisfied societies
of
squares such as abound in Canada, Australia, West Germany and
Austria, and probably still constitute the majority in the U.S.A.
It
is not aswinging system. People are not likely to go to the stake,
or the barricades, to defend federalism as such. They may under-
take heroic actions for the sake
of
some value which federalism
happens
at
the minute to favour, and may then even inscribe
federalism on their
banner-'Liberty
and
Federalism'-'Equality
and
Federalism'-but
never
just
'Federalism'. My own preference
would be for aBill
of
Rights state,2 but Iwould sooner live in a
moderately incompetent affluent federalism than in any centralised
system with no entrenched Bill
of
Rights
at
all (pages 186-187).
Precision in dating is
not
always important and Sawer is sometimes
given
to
approximation. The buyer
of
this book may care to note
that
the Social Security amendment to the Australian Constitution was
carried in
1946
(page 43); Western Australians voted for secession in
1933
(page 88); W. M. Hughes' attempt
at
"court-stacking" surely
occurred in
1913
(page 157); the Labour appointment
of
Labour
barristers to the Court occurred in
1930
(page 157); F. D. Roosevelt's
"court-stacking" attempt occurred in
1937
(page
157).
As Sawer says
on
page
157,
the big change in majority U.S. Supreme Court opinion
on
federal powers came in 1937, but on page
79
he seems to be settling
for
1935
and
on
page
165
for
1936.
Though approximate dating may
not
be helpful for younger readers, this reviewer would count it venial
in anyone as stimulating as Geoffrey Sawer.
L. F. CRISP*
Conflict
of
Laws
in
Australia, by
P.
E. NYGH, LL.M. (Syd.),
S.J.D.
(Mich.),
Senior Lecturer in
Law,t
University
of
Sydney; assisted by E.
I.
SYKES, B.A. (Qld.),
LL.D.
(Melb.), Professor
of
Public Law, Uni-
versity
of
Melbourne, and
D.
J.
MACDOUGALL, LL.B. (Melb.),
J.D.
(Chic.), Professor
of
Law, University
of
British Columbia. (Butter-
worths, 1968), pp. i-xlii,
1-765.
$14.50.
2That
is
to
sayan
evolving federal state in which ...geographically guaranteed
autonomy
[is]
replaced, gradually, by guarantees appropriate to aplural society in
which the entrenched protection
of
an
area
of
individual autonomy is the basis for
denying omnipotence
to
acentrally organized Leviathan. (pages 185-186.)
*
M.A.
(Oxon.
and
Adel.); Professor
of
Political Science, School
of
General Studies,
Australian National University.
tNow Associate Professor
of
Law, University
of
Sydney.
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