Book Review: Lisa Burton Crawford the Rule of Law and the Australian Constitution
| DOI | 10.22145/flr.45.4.11 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK REVIEWS
The Hon. Robert French AC*
Lisa Burton Crawford The Rule of Law and the Australian Constitution
Janina Boughey Human Rights and Judicial Review in Australia and Canada:
The Newest Despotism?
INTRODUCTION
These two books reminded me of two brief exchanges about the rule of law. One was in
2007 or 2008 in Fiji with some American diplomats discussing the military coup under
which President Bainimarama displaced the elected Prime Minister and his government.
At the time I was one of the Australian sessional memb ers of the Supreme Court of Fiji.
One of the diplomats, referring to Fiji’s new military leadership, said with some
bemusement ‘you know we ran all these guys through rule of law programs’. The second
exchange occurred when I was addressing law students at Seoul National University in
October 2 011 on the topic of the Rule of Law and the Constitution. When it came to
question time, one of the international students, who came from Germany, asked ‘where
is it written down in your Constitution, this rule of law?’
That question, I suppose, generalised to ‘where is it located?’, is one of the underlying
themes of Lisa Burton Crawford’s important and thought provoking book. I say ‘thought
provoking’ not in the usual euphemistic way in a vote of thanks for a boring speech that
has said nothing new. I say ‘thought prov oking’ because in various parts in the text I
found myself stopping and saying ‘I’m not sure I agree with that’ or ‘I need to think
about that’. The book requires of its reader reflection upon each topic and that is a mark
of its merit. Janina Boughey’s excellent book focusses on the development of judicial
review of administrative action in Ca nada with an entrenched Bill of Rights and in
Australia without one. She too deals with an important aspect of the rule of law in action
as we understand it in Australia. Her book provides us with a comparative study which
enables us to understand our own administrative law better than we would do without
it. It also calls into question the utility of the fashionable but rather jaded characterisation
of Australian jurisprudence as ‘exceptionalist’.
* Adjunct Professor, Monash University. This is an edited version of a speech launching the
two books.
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