Australian Perspectives on Executive Power

Australian Perspectives on Executive Power brings together leading judges, constitutional scholars and practitioners to address a single, unifying question: what will be the key issues in executive power in the coming decades? Across its chapters, the volume maps the historical foundations, doctrinal evolution and emerging fault-lines of non-statutory executive authority – from prerogative and “nationhood” powers to secrecy, immunity, standing, intergovernmental agreements, conflict, expertise in decision-making, and the constraints imposed by proportionality and the implied freedom of political communication.

The book confronts a central constitutional anxiety of modern government: how far executive power can extend in the absence of statute, and what meaningful limits constrain the exercise of non-statutory executive power. Australian Perspectives on Executive Power examines executive power (particularly non-statutory executive power) across a wide range of contexts in which it is exercised, analysing both the sufficiency of the authority it grants to the executive government to achieve its aims, and the effectiveness of the mechanisms by which abuses of executive power are prevented and remedied. By engaging directly with the controversies likely to define litigation, governance and reform of executive power in coming decades, this collection is essential reading for scholars, legal practitioners, judges, government lawyers and policymakers concerned with the future shape of Australian constitutionalism.