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In what is being described by lawyers and academics as one of the most
important Australian constitutional law cases in the last 50 years,
solicitor, Mr Nigel Dobbie of Parish Patience Immigration, Lawyers, led by
barristers Professor George Williams and Mr Duncan Kerr MP, successfully
argued in the High Court of Australia that recent "Tampa" laws
passed to restrict the courts’ ability to overturn decisions made by the
Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, or by
review tribunals (AAT, MRT and the RRT) do not operate to stop appeals
where there has been ‘jurisdictional error’.
The case, Plaintiff
S157 of 2002 v The Commonwealth of Australia, was decided on 4
February 2003. Mr David Bitel said of the ruling:
“This is victory for the little battler against the might of the
Commonwealth of Australia. The High Court, in a unanimous ruling (7-0),
made it clear that no one is above the law in Australia, including
officers of the Commonwealth, so that where an officer of the Commonwealth
has made a jurisdictional error (for example, in a decision to refuse to
grant a visa) the courts can order the application to be redetermined
according to law, regardless of the Tampa laws being valid. Until this
decision, the Federal Court had to refuse appeals, even where there was
jurisdictional error in the decision. This means that the Commonwealth’s
attempts, to prevent immigrants and their sponsors from seeking review in
the courts, have effectively failed. The Commonwealth was ordered to pay
75% of Plaintiff S157’s costs.”
For further information contact:
Nigel Dobbie
Parish Patience Immigration
Level 1, 338 Pitt Street
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Ph: +61 2 9286 8769
Email: Nigel Dobbie
Registered Migration Agent: 9370721
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