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All of the states and territories of Australia that are self-governing are separate jurisdictions, and have their own system of courts and parliaments. The systems of laws in each state are influential on each other, but not binding. Laws passed by the Parliament of the Commonwealth apply to the whole of Australia. The organized system of law and government now in force in Australia is historically dependent for its legal validity on a series of British statutes, notably including the ''Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act'' 1900. The authority of the United Kingdom Parliament to enact those statutes depended on the acquisition of the Australian continent as a territorial possession of the British Crown. Although the laws of the Australian colonies differed from the UK in many respects from the beginnings of settlement, the underlying patterns of thought reflect the common law tradition as received from Britain. == Reception of English law == The legal institutions and traditions of Australian law are monocultural in character, reflecting its English origins.〔Patrick Parkinson, ''Tradition and Change in Australian Law'' (Sydney: LBC Information Services, 2001) at 6.〕 Influenced by contemporary ideas of international law, Sophism, and private ownership, the British regarded the Aboriginal peoples as being too primitive to have lawful possession of the Australian continent. They chose to treat New Holland (as much of Australia was then known) as ''terra nullius'', meaning an empty place. Since the Privy Council had held that uninhabited lands settled by English subjects would be governed by the laws of England,〔''Case 15 - Anonymous'' (1722) 2 Peer William's Reports 75; 24 ER 646.〕 there was no place for Aboriginal native title to land, nor for the recognition of Aboriginal custom or law. The reception of English law was clarified by the ''Australian Courts Act'' 1828, which provided that all laws and statutes in force in England at the date of the enactment of the legislation should be applied in the courts of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) so far as they were applicable. Since Queensland and Victoria were originally part of New South Wales, the same date applies in those States for the reception of English law. South Australia adopted a different date for reception,〔''Acts Interpretation Act'' 1919 (South Australia), s 48.〕 as did Western Australia.〔''Interpretation Act'' 1918 (Western Australia), s 43.〕 The earliest civil and criminal courts established from the beginnings of the colony of New South Wales were rudimentary, adaptive and military in character. Although legality was not always observed, the courts limited the powers of the Governor, and the law of the colony was at times more egalitarian than in Britain.〔R. Kercher, ''An Unruly Child: A History of Law in Australia'' (Allen & Unwin, 1995) at 7, 52. Kercher makes reference to the case of Henry Kable, who successfully sued the captain of the ship ''Alexander''.〕 By 1824, a court system based in essence on the English model had been established through Acts of the British Parliament.〔''New South Wales Act'' 1823; ''Australian Courts Act'' 1828〕 The ''New South Wales Act'' 1823 provided for the establishment of a Supreme Court with the power to deal with all criminal and civil matters "as fully and amply as Her Majesty's Court of King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer at Westminster".〔4 Geo IV c 96, s 2.〕 Inferior courts were also established, including courts of General or Quarter Sessions, and Courts of Requests. Representative government emerged in the 1840s and 1850s, and a considerable measure of autonomy was given to local legislatures in the second half of the nineteenth century.〔''Great Reform Act'' 1832; ''Australian Constitutions Act (No 1)'' 1842; ''Australian Constitutions Act (No 2)'' (Imp).〕 Colonial Parliaments introduced certain reforms such as secret ballots and female suffrage, which were not to occur in Britain until many years later. Nevertheless, Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament extending to the colonies could override contrary colonial legislation and would apply by "paramount force".〔''Colonial Laws Validity Act'' 1865 (Imp), s 2.〕 New doctrines of English common law continued to be treated as representing the common law of Australia. For example, the doctrine of the famous case of ''Donoghue v Stevenson'' from which the modern negligence law derived, was treated as being latent already within the common law at the time of reception.〔''State Government Insurance Commission (SA) v Trigwell'' (1979) 142 CLR 617.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Law of Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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