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The Constitution of Australia (also known as the Commonwealth Constitution) is the fundamental law that governs the political structure of Australia.It is a written constitution, which establishes the country as a federation under a constitutional monarchy governed with a parliamentary system.
In its design, Australia's federal system was modelled closely on the American federal system.This included: enumeration of the powers of parliament (s. 51) and not those of the States, with the States being assigned a broad 'residual' power instead (s. 108); a 'supremacy' clause (s. 109); strong bicameralism, with a Senate in which the States are equally represented notwithstanding great ...
The Constitutional history of Australia is the history of Australia's foundational legal principles. Australia's legal origins as a nation state began in the colonial era, with the reception of English law and the lack of any regard to existing Indigenous legal structures.
The Australian colonies were federated into 'The Commonwealth' in 1901. To achieve this, the British Parliament enacted a written constitution drawn up by the Australian colonists. The document was influenced by constitutional systems of the UK, the United States, and Switzerland. [19] [20]
The Australian colonies were also influenced by other federations that had emerged around the world, particularly the United States and Canada. Sir Henry Parkes, then colonial secretary of New South Wales, first proposed a Federal Council body in 1867. [11]
The history of Australia from 1901 to 1945 begins with the federation of the six colonies to create the Commonwealth of Australia. The young nation joined Britain in the First World War, suffered through the Great Depression in Australia as part of the global Great Depression and again joined Britain in the Second World War against Nazi Germany in 1939.
Constitutional conventions in Australia are significant meetings that have debated the Australian Constitution.The first two gatherings debated Federation and what form of Constitution to adopt, while the following conventions debated amendments to the document.
The High Court's approach to section 51 has changed over time. Initially, the court adopted the 'Reserved Powers' doctrine, an interpretive view that the Australian States had implicitly retained competence in core areas, which were unable to be displaced by the Commonwealth even through reliance upon the powers enumerated in s51.