After the Judicial Revolution: How Regime Politics Constituted and Constrained the Gleeson Court

The book explores the aftermath of a judicial revolution in Australia's High Court in the late 1980s and 1990s, focusing on the post-revolution retrenchment under Chief Justice Murray Gleeson. It uses the regime politics model to analyze how a court of final appeal operates within the broader political system, including its exercise of judicial power and interactions with other branches.

Format: Hardback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 01 January 2021
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Over the past three decades, supreme courts across the common law world have experienced significant transformations in their roles and responsibilities, leading to a global expansion of judicial power and politicization of courts. While extensive literature exists on the events leading up to these changes, this book fills a gap by exploring the aftermath of such revolutionary change. The focus of the work is the judicial revolution that occurred in Australia's High Court during the late 1980s and 1990s under the leadership of Chief Justice Anthony Mason and the subsequent retrenchment during the chief justiceship of Murray Gleeson. Many anticipated that Gleeson's appointment to the High Court would signify a departure from the highly politicized and controversial activist jurisprudence of the Mason Court, with a more minimalist jurisprudence grounded in black letter law and greater deference to parliament and the executive. The authors employ the regime politics model to analyze how a court of final appeal operates within the broader political system, including its exercise of judicial power and its interactions with other branches. Additionally, the model enables assessment of changes in substantive law, workload, and interactions with other branches. Ultimately, the book confirms the claims of regime politics scholarship, highlighting that courts cannot deviate from the dominant political regimes' values and commitments without risking the regime's use of its tools to enforce compliance.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472468826