Ron Merkel on the High Court & Human Rights

Ron Merkel, barrister and former Judge of the Federal Court of Australia, addressed the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Conference on 20 July 2012.

"Australia's 'horse and buggy' Constitution has shown a remarkable ability to adapt to political, social and economic change. Far from being a document that merely established a federal system of government in Australia it has been interpreted and applied by the High Court to protect fundamental human rights. ...Australia's constitutional framework has unexpectedly become highly protective of human rights against the exercise of arbitrary, capricious or unsupervised legislative or executive power."