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The purpose of this report is to describe the major features of Australia’s legal system. This report is written for non-Australians whose own country’s legal systems are different from Australia’s legal system.



There are many features of Australia’s legal system. However, given words constraints, I will focus on four important features only.



The first feature of the legal system is the system itself. The legal system consists of the Australian common law (which is based on the English common law), federal laws enacted by the Parliament of Australia, and laws enacted by the state and territory Parliaments. Arguably the most important law of Australia is the Constitution of Australia, which describes Australia’s system of constitutional monarchy, and forms the basis for the government of Australia.



All of the States and territories of Australia that are self-governing are separate jurisdictions, and have their own system of courts and parliaments. The systems of laws in each State are influential on each other, but not binding. Law passed by the Parliament of Australia applies to the whole of Australia.



The second feature of the legal system is that the system is a constitutional democracy based on a division of powers. This means Australia is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia, a role that is distinct from her position as monarch of the other Commonwealth realms. The Queen is represented by the Governor-General at federal level and by the Governors at state level. The Governor-General approves laws made by Parliament.



There are three branches of government both in federal and state and territory parliaments, as follows:

· The legislature: the upper house Parliament, comprising the Queen, the lower house, and the House of Representatives

· The executive: the Executive Council; in practice, this means the Prime Minister or premier and his or her Ministers.

· The judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts. The state courts became formally independent from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council [1] when the Australia Act was passed in 1986.



Each of these branches of government is independent. Therefore, if the legislature enacts a new law that someone wishes to test in a court room, the reason can be ensured that the court will make an independent decision. Accordingly, independence creates a natural control mechanism within the system. Compare this to say Pakistan, where its President (currently General Musharraf) controls the government and the courts. That country is either on the brink of civil war or is already in a civil war.



The third feature is the common law. In common law legal systems, the law is created and/or refined by judges: a decision in the case currently pending depends on decisions in previous cases and affects the law to be applied in future cases. When there is no authoritative statement of the law, common law judges have the authority and duty to “make” law by creating precedent. The body of precedent is called “common law” and it binds future decisions. In future cases, when parties disagree on what the law is, an “ideal” common law court looks to past decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, court is bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision (this principle is known as stare devises [2]). If however, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases, it will decide as a “matter of first impression.” Thereafter, the new decision becomes precedent, and will bind future courts under the principle of stare devises.



In practice, common law systems are considerably more complicated than the “ideal” system described above. The decisions of a court are binding only in a particular jurisdiction, and even within a given jurisdiction, some courts have more power than others. For example, in most jurisdictions, decisions by appellate courts are binding on lower courts in the same jurisdiction and on future decisions of the same appellate court, but decisions of non-appellate courts are only non-binding persuasive authority. Interactions between common law, constitutional law, and statutory law also give rise to considerable complexity. However the principle that similar cases should be decided according to similar rules, lies at heart of all common law systems.



The forth feature is the religion. In Australia, even in the whole western world, people’s behavior relate with their religion. Most people in western world believed in god and they have their responsibility to god. For example, if a criminal in court, he has to promise what he said to the judge is the truth, at the same time; he also has to promise to put his hand on the Bible and promise god what he said is the truth, So, religion is to bond the people’s behavior and make the legal system more perfect.



Here are four most important features of Australia’s legal system. They are very special but they have their own purpose. The ruler will use this legal system to lead Australia go to a good future.





Definition:



[1]The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom, established by the Judicial Committee Act 1833.



[2]Stare decisis (“to stand by things decided”)is a Latin legal term, used in common law systems to express the notion that prior court decisions must be recognized as precedents, according to case law