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The term "external affairs" was used in section 51(xxix) rather than "foreign affairs" to make it clear that relations with the United Kingdom and other parts of the British Empire were intended to be included. When the Australian Constitution was created in 1901, the United Kingdom and its possessions were not conceived of as "foreign" to ...
The High Court's approach to section 51 has changed over time. Initially, the court adopted the 'Reserved Powers' doctrine, an interpretive view that the Australian States had implicitly retained competence in core areas, which were unable to be displaced by the Commonwealth even through reliance upon the powers enumerated in s51.
Section 51(xxix) of the Australian Constitution, which simply states that the Parliament has power to make laws with respect to "external affairs" (a term which is left undefined), was put forward as an alternative source of authority for the Act. The Commonwealth in a submission argued that since the Act gave effect to Australia's ...
Polyukhovich v The Commonwealth [1991] HCA 32; (1991) 172 CLR 501, commonly referred to as the War Crimes Act Case, was a significant case decided in the High Court of Australia regarding the scope of the external affairs power in section 51(xxix) of the Constitution and the judicial power of the Commonwealth.
The Constitution Alteration (Prices) 1973 was a bill proposing amendments to section 51 of the Australian Constitution which would give the Commonwealth legislative power over prices. The proposed changes to the constitution were not upheld, with Australians voting against the constitutional alteration. [1]
The principal argument of the Government of Australia is that the legislation is supported by Section 51(xx) of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1901, commonly known as "the corporations power", which gives the Parliament of Australia the power to make laws with respect to "foreign corporations, and trading or financial ...
Section 51(xxxi) of the Australian Constitution provides that the federal government has the power to appropriate property "on just terms" for any other purpose it has powers to make laws about (see Section 51 of the Constitution of Australia: for example, acquiring land to build a military base). The crucial phrase in this section is "on just ...
Because of the wide scope of the external affairs power, section 51(xxx) has remained largely unused, though it was considered in Ruhani v Director of Police [2] (a case which dealt with the High Court of Australia's ability to hear appeals from the Supreme Court of Nauru) and was held obiter as being "conferred for reasons entirely unrelated to judicial power".