Book Review: Constitutional Law
| Published date | 01 September 1977 |
| Date | 01 September 1977 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0067205X7700800308 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
376 Federal
Law
Review
[VOLUME
8
coherent view of what has been decided. Questions of double dissol-
utions, Parliamentary representation of the Territories, the High
Court's constitutional role vis-it-vis the Privy Council, the seaward
limits of the States, the respective offshore rights of Commonwealth
and States and the constitutional rights of electors are among the many
issues that have since been examined by the High Court and indeed
claimed the attention, interest and concern of awider group than those
who normally concentrate on the "Lawyer's Constitution", if indeed
that
phrase itself
is
admissible today
or
ever was. The nation's problems
present themselves with new faces. P.
BRAZIL*
Constitutional
Law
by
CHRISTOPHER
ENRIGHT,
LL.B.
(Syd.), B.A.
(Newcastle); Lecturer in Legal Studies, University of Newcastle.
(The
Law Book Company Limited,
1977),
pp. i-xlviii, 1-374. Cloth,
recommended retail price $21.50 (ISBN: 0455 19459
9);
Paperback,
recommended retail price $15.50 (ISBN: 0455 19460
2).
Mr
Enright, alecturer in Legal Studies
at
the University of New-
castle,
fills
aneed among Australian teaching requirements with the
first ever comprehensive introduction to Australian constitutional
studies. He provides some outline of constitutional and legal history as
well. Some of the material on statutes and their interpretation, and on
judicial decision and the structure of the unenacted law,
is
also appro-
priate to courses on legal method
or
elementary jurisprudence. All this
is
treated in strict text book fashion, not in the curent vogue by the
accumulation of statutes, cases and "materials". He justifies the book
on
apedagogical principle which has gone out of fashion among
educational experts, though it may well come back into fashion.
In
his
own words:
"I
believe
that
one of the best ways of teaching alaw
subject
is
to commence by outlining the subject in general terms. This
provides the background which gives astudent some perspective and a
feel for the shape of the subject,
so
that he can proceed to adeeper
study of it where he can examine its principles in more detail, its
underlying theory and its social utility".
It
is
likely
that
he had in mind the specific requirements of the legal
studies courses, not leading to full professional qualification, which have
been and will be established in all tertiary institutions, but it will be
apparent to law teachers
that
abook of this kind can be used for a
mixture of purposes in the first year of full-scale law courses as well.
T'he peculiarity of the book as compared with any of its Australian
predecessors
is
that it attempts to pay about equal attention to the
two main levels of Australian
government-State
and Commonwealth
-and
also to the structure of parliamentary, responsible, cabinet,
monarchically based government common to both levels. No previous
*B.A., LL.B. (Hons.)
(Qld);
First Assistant Secretary, Commonwealth
Attorney-General's Department, Canberra.
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