Book Review: International Law in Australia
| Author | D. O'Connor |
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X6700200214 |
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
308
Federal Law Review
[VOLUME
2
deals with the shield
of
the Crown it is, perhaps, alittle premature
to
say that the doctrine
of
Crown benefit
'has
the stamp
of
approval
of
the House
of
Lords'.
Perhaps, too, the possibility
of
the development
in Australia
of
distinctions between 'want 'and
'excess'
of
jurisdiction
and '
void'
and
'voidable'
decisions along the lines
of
Lord Denning's
judgment in R.
v.
Paddington Valuation Officer;
Ex
parte Peachey
Property Corporation6should not yet be excluded.
It
must be conceded,
however, that the recent decision
of
the Privy Council in Durayappah
v.
Fernand07has dampened somewhat the optimism
of
the reviewer.
Clearly, the authors have tried to isolate determinate principles wherever
possible. That they have not succeeded on anumber
of
fundamental
points
is
far less areason for criticism
of
their efforts than an indication
of
the urgency
of
the need for legislative reform in administrative law.
It
is
the great merit
of
their work that in alittle over three hundred
and
fifty pages they have given abalanced and judiciously selective account
of
amost heterogeneous body
of
case law.
In
doing this and in indicating
the points
at
which the courts have become bogged down they have done
asubstantial service to legal education in the widest sense.
MAURICE
CULLITY*
International Law
in
Australia, edited by D. P.
O'CONNELL,
Professor
of
International Law in the University
of
Adelaide, assisted by
J.
VARSANYI,
Research Officer in Law in the University
of
Adelaide,
(The Law Book Company Limited, 1965), pp. I-xliii,
1-603.
$11.00.
The wide-ranging and extremely useful papers published in this volume
for the Australian Institute
of
International Affairs
is
afurther indication
of
the vitality
of
the discussion
of
international law in Australia, and
coming soon after the two volume work on International Law by Pro-
fessor O'Connell and new editions
of
Mr
Starke's Introduction to Inter-
national Law, shows very clearly the new status that Australians see for
themselves in international affairs.
The contributors to this series
of
papers include Professor O'Connell,
Professor Sawer,
Mr
Body
of
the Department
of
External Affairs, Sir
Kenneth Bailey, and many other important writers on various aspects
of
international law.
One aspect
of
the role which Australia may well find for itself in inter-
national law
is
indicated clearly in Professor O'Connell's paper on
Australia's International Personality. He says (page
33)
:
The total impression that
is
conveyed
is
that Australia's
contribution to international law
is
as proportionate as her experience
therein. Australia is the prototype
of
the federal society with a
6[1965] 2All E.R. 836.
7[196712 All E.R.
152.
*LL.B. (W.A.), B.C.L.
(Oxon.);
Senior Lecturer
in
Law, University
of
MelbDurne.
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