Guantanamo to Baxter: Kirby weighs up the clout of international law

•	Newsroom
•	Media Releases
•	UTS Experts
•	UTSpeaks

Guantanamo to Baxter: Kirby weighs up the clout of international law


High Court judge Justice Michael Kirby will explore the influence of international law on national law, including a landmark High Court decision on the detention of asylum seekers, in a special lecture tomorrow at the University of Technology Sydney. Justice Kirby is delivering the latest in the UTS Law Research Seminar Series: International Law and Constitutional Interpretation after Al-Kateb and Hamdan v Rumsfeld. In the 2004 Al-Kateb case before the High Court of Australia, a majority of judges found that the Australian Government could continue to detain a failed asylum seeker, even when deporting that person had proved impossible. Justice Kirby, in the minority group of judges in Al Kateb, was involved in debate with other judges in that case. Similar differences of judicial opinion were expressed in this year's Hamdan v Rumsfeld case before the United States Supreme Court, where the court found that military commissions set up by the Bush Government to try Guantanamo Bay detainees were illegal under both US federal law and the Geneva Convention. Justice Kirby will consider both these cases in exploring the extent to which national courts (especially final courts) may use comparative and international law in the exposition of national, constitutional and other law. Justice Kirby was appointed to the High Court in 1996. He had previously served as the President of the NSW Court of Appeal, a Deputy President of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, a judge of the Federal Court of Australia and the first Chairperson of the Australian Law Reform Commission. Tuesday 22 August 2006