High Court (HCA). Can an intermediate appellate court depart from seriously considered dicta of a majority of the HCA? How should an intermediate appellate court nor a trial judge treat decisions of another intermediate appellate court?
Some of the questions to the HCA were as follows:
Question 1: Can an intermediate appellate court depart from seriously considered dicta of a majority of the HCA?
Question 2: Can it be said that "neither an intermediate appellate court nor a trial judge should depart from a decision of another intermediate appellate court on the interpretation of Commonwealth legislation, uniform national legislation or the common law of Australia unless convinced that the interpretation is plainly wrong or, to use a different expression, unless there is a compelling reason to do so"?
Question 3: Can it be said that "intermediate appellate courts and trial judges are not bound to follow obiter dicta of other intermediate appellate courts, although they would ordinarily be expected to give great weight to them"?
The HCA answered those questions as follows:
The remainder of this article is only available to Case Law and Platinum subscribers.
Read our Terms & Conditions and upgrade below:
Monthly Subscriptions
Annual Subscriptions
Where GST applies, the above amounts are inclusive of GST.
Content Types
Basic Content includes basic news, some media articles and selected announcements.
Premium Content includes all our content, except for Case Law Content. In other words, it includes Basic Content, plus all our articles on legislative and policy changes, industry updates and the Migration Legislation Tracker.
Case Law Content includes Basic Content, plus case law summaries, analysis and extract, but does not include Premium Content.
Platinum Content includes Basic Content, plus Premium Content, plus Case Law Content. In other words, it includes ALL our content.
If you already have a Case Law or Platinum subscription, click on 'Login' below.