Australian Legal System

1267 Words3 Pages

The legal systems around the globe vary in many aspects and all originate from some other system that may have existed. The culture of each country, or even area within a country, has some impact on the legal system itself. This paper will provide a brief description of each country using history and culture. It will also state what type of legal tradition is used by each perspective country. This paper will also attempt to describe how history, culture, and the legal tradition are applied to management of the justice system of each country. This paper will also analyze how culture may have impacted the development of three countries. These countries will be Australia, Canada, and the United States. This paper will also gaze into the last …show more content…

are all rich with history and the stories are grand stories of famine and prosperity, which all lead up to our present day legal societies. We all had to start somewhere, but for the purposes of this paper, there will be only a brief description of the history of each. Australia used to be inhabited by aboriginal people, but as the British started to arrive and colonized Australia these people slowly faded away into history. This began in 1788 when Britain sent criminals over to Australia for new penal colonies to be formed (Commonwealth Staff, n.d.). The colonization continued, and in 1901, the six Australian States that were formed, all from British colonists, formed one nation. The legal system was formed at the same time using the British legal system as a guideline. The foundation of the legal system is the Australian Constitution. The Constitution was developed by the people of Australia who voted for its implementation (Overview of the Australian legal system, n.d.). This system was based on statutory law, which was made by parliament, and common law, which is based on precedents or other cases of a similar …show more content…

These cases have impacted how the system works. Take the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms for example. This charter was tested in court in 1990. In 1990 the Supreme Court in Canada received the case of R. v. Sparrow. This was the first case that applied section 35 which recognized the aboriginal people. Sparrow was convicted for fishing with a drift net that was too long. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction stating that the Constitution Act provides a strong measure of protection for Aboriginal rights, and that any proposed government regulations that infringe on the exercise of those rights must be constitutionally justified (Joseph, 2014). Australia and the U.S. have had their share of cases when it comes to things such as this too. These types of cases, whether it is about Aboriginals, Africans, Chinese, or whatever have serious effects upon the legal system. Things change and need to continue to change as societies

Open Document