Legal Sac1 T4 Revision

Human rights

Basic freedom and and protections that belong to every person

How rights are protected

Rights are protected by systems, common law, statue law, international constitution & Australian Constitution

Australian Constitution

• Written 1901 

• Written set of rules of how Australia is run 

Express rights

Clearly stated in the Constitution which can only be changed by a referendum (yes or no) through both houses of parliament and approved by majority voters eg. freedom of religion, right to vote

Implied rights 

Rights not explicitly stated in the Constitution but you can guess you already have those rights even if not written down, recognized by the High Court of Australia

International treaty

Formal agreement between 2 or more countries

• All UN member countries meet and agree on an issue 

• Negotiate and sign it (if your country chooses to)

United Nations

• Promote human rights globally

• Australia sometimes signs international treaties

• A member of the country is represented in the UN 

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

Document made by the United Nations which lists all the basic rights

• Created after WW2

• Eg. Right to education, freedom to speech, freedom of movement, freedom from torture

Eddie Mabo

• Australian activist

• Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders have rights to their traditional land which lead to native title

• Mabo vs Qld (Common law)

Native title

The right to traditional lands for Indigenous Australians

• Statue law

Groups campaigning for human rights

Aboriginal activists, women’s rights, lgbtqia+

Statue law

Creates acts of parliament, this makes it a law  eg. Disability Act 2007

Statutory right 

• Given to us by parliament 

• Always contains ‘Act” 

• Eg. Disability Act 2007

Common law

Courts develop rules through decision eg. Mabo vs Qld

• Parliament can codify and abrogate common law rights

Ratify

Related to International treaty so if Australia agrees then they have to make it a local law

Codify

to write down common law rights (common law made into statue law)

Abrogate

to remove common law rights

Parliament

Where laws are made & changed

• Federal Parliament (Canberra) - Makes laws for all of AUS

• State & Territory Parliament - Makes laws for their own areas

• Each Parliament has House of Representatives (Lower House), House of Senate (Upper House), King (represented by Governor or Governor General