VU21909 Apply Foundation Legal Principles: Australian Legal System

This report provides an overview of the Australian legal system, starting with Australian law prior to federation, the structure and jurisdiction of federal and Victorian courts, and the appeals process within Victoria. It explains the purpose of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), including a summary of a specific VCAT case involving natural justice. The report defines natural justice and describes its application to the case study, referencing key legal decisions and scholarly articles. The document discusses the hierarchy of courts, civil and criminal matters, and procedures for appeals, offering a comprehensive understanding of the legal landscape in Australia. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

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TABLE OF CONTENT
 Australian law prior to federation
 Structure and jurisdiction of federal courts
 Structure and jurisdiction of Victoria courts
 Appeals process as it applies to criminal and civil procedures within Victoria courts.
 Purpose of Ccat
 Summary of a specific VCAT case that included natural justice
 Natural justice and describe how natural justice applies to the case

1. Australian Law prior to federation, main source of colony law before
federation. Change that federation made in law and judicial system
 Australian law prior to federation are new south wales act 1823, Act to provide for the administration of justice introduced
in 1828, Western Australia 1829,
South Australian Colonization Act 1834 (UK), Australian Constitutions Act 1850 (UK), Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865
(UK) and many more.
 The main sources of colony law before federation are the Australia Acts 1986, Commonwealth, State and Territory
legislation and Constitution Acts of the several States that helps in effective formulation of new Australia.
 The federation has lead change in the law and judicial system as it preserves the right of states in order to maintain the state
constitution. Thus, from now onwards the name of states such as New South Wales Constitution will be applied which were
not before the federation.

2. Structure and jurisdiction of federal courts
 The federal courts of Australia have three main level such as districts courts, then comes the circuit courts
which is the first court in which a person firstly apply for its key issue, whereas the supreme courts is the
final level in federal system. In addition to this the court and judiciary system of Australia are properly
structured in the form of hierarchy i.,e from top to bottom.
 The jurisdiction of federal courts of Australia covers all civil matters that are arising as per the Australia
federal law and indictable criminal matters. Moreover, the judiciary act is used to monitor the jurisdiction in
order to hear judicial review of decision that are made by the officers of Commonwealth.

Hierarchy of courts and civil and criminal matter that can be hear
 Jurisdiction of Australia is divided into federal v. state, civil v. criminal and original v. Appellate. There are
different levels of courts in Australia that performed different functions and deal with cases so that issue face
by the people in the society can be easily resolved.
 High court, federal court, family court and federal circuits courts are various courts of Australia that handle
both civil and criminal matter. Likewise, high courts handle both civil and criminal matters, while federal
courts of Australia cover civil matter and summary of criminal.
 law, child support, copyright and human right or civil related laws only.

3. Structure and jurisdiction of Victorian courts
 Each court of the Victoria has its own jurisdiction or areas of law
that needs to be follow by the court so their roles is to settle the
dispute, impose penalties and interpret the law.
 Australian court system has hierarchy that determine the type of
cases needs to be heard in each court.
 There are various courts such as Magistrates’ Court, County
Court, Supreme Court, Children’s Court, Coroners Court,
Neighborhood Justice Centre and Tribunals.

Hierarchy of the courts and describe the civil and criminal matters they can
hear
 Magistrates’ Court: It is the court that mainly handle the legal disputes thus each case is heard by judicial officer and there is no
involvement of jury. So, it handles the civil matters.
 Country courts: This court hears both the serious criminal and civil matter before making any particular judgement.
 Supreme court: There are two division of courts such as trial and court of appeal, in which trial division hears the serious criminal cases.
 Children court: This is a division that hears issue pertaining to children and also have two divisions such as criminal and family that are
responsible for handling the issue that are face by people.
 Coroner court: It also handle only criminal cases.
 Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal: While it handles the civil matters as them helps two parties to reach at particular agreement.

4. Appeals process related to criminal and civil procedures within Victorian
courts
 In case of criminal case, the person needs to firstly approach the Magistrates court of Victoria and if it is not
satisfied the decision of the court. Then it has opportunity to appeal to country court of Victoria and
supreme court. So, through approaching all these court, person can resolve criminal cases issue.
 On the other hand, there are various steps or procedure that needs to be follow by person to apply for
criminal case such as: make appeal, serve document on respondent, respondent may respond, the case need
to be ready for judgment and finally decision of judge.

5. Purpose of VCAT
 Purpose of VCAT: The main purpose of the Victoria civil and administrative tribute is to resolve all the
legal and other cases happening in the Victoria for promoting peace and harmony in society.
 Difference between civil and administrative actions
 Civil action are the rules of civil procedure that monitor or govern the different courts that has been
established by states and commonwealth.
 On the other hand, administrative law states that the court take action related to analysis whether the
government take right decision and conduct as per the Australian Law and fair process

The manner in which appeal an administrative matter from vcat
 The appeal process needs to be implemented within 28 days from VCAT order then fees needs to be made
for decision and lastly act effectively as soon VCAT make decision.

6. Summary of a specific VCAT case that included natural justice.
 Victoria v Turner, is one of the VCAT case that has involved natural justice as it has awarded for the
compensation that respondent needs to be discriminated against that application.
 Along with it, prior notice has not given for applicant claim or proposed to award for compensation for that
period. The VCAT has decided to infringed the fair hearing rule.

7. Natural justice and describe how natural justice applies to the case
 Natural justice is technical terminology pertaining to the rules that are against the bias and involve the right
of hearing thus it can be known as duty of act fairly.
 The natural justice is applied to the Victoria v Turner because in this the VCATs has break the rule of natural
justice by not performing the duty in proper manner.