The Judicial System And Legal Disputes In Australia: A Case Study

Judicial System in Australia

Discuss about the Criminology & Criminal Justice for Parramatta Local Court.

The judicial wing of the government is tasked with interpreting the laws enacted by the legislature. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (cth) provides for such a separation of powers and in doing so creates a system where the powers of the legislative wing of the government are under judicial review and scrutiny. This ensures that arbitrary and discretionary laws are not enacted within the jurisdiction of the Australian commonwealth. Thus judges are appointed by due process of law to preside over disputes. Legal disputes can be broadly classified into categories- Civil and Criminal. In a civil dispute the issue is between two parties and the judge must determine the rights of both parties. In criminal trails the case is between an accused person and the state and the judge must decide the innocence or guilt of the accused.

I arrived at the Parramatta Local Court in Sydney, NSW at 10 a.m. when the court began its proceedings. The ambiance of the Courtroom was an ardent reminder regal stature of the legal profession. The halls echoed with the voice of justice and demonstrated the practicality of the concept of equality before law. It truly emanated an aura that gave the impression that if a person had a legally valid right these halls would deliver a remedy for the same. The court proceeding I decided to document was taken up at 10:50 a.m. The court clerk called for the matter and the same was taken up accordingly by the court. The magistrate presiding over this case was Magistrate Shields. The matter in question was a case of traffic violations by Ms. Mary Saliba. The case of Ms. Saliba was that she was driving with a suspended license. Her license was suspended till Jan 2019 and yet she was found operating a vehicle. She was represented by a counsel. However, due to her counsel not being well-versed will all the facts surrounding the accused before the violation and as a result false statements were entered into evidence.

The accused was a single mother of three children who had disabilities. She thus had difficulties and transporting them which was the crux of her plea before the court. However, as these had not been pleaded in the past the Magistrate had to allow proceedings against her. This clearly shows the magistrate’s adherence to equality before law. The magistrate further questioned the accused if she was aware that driving with a suspended license could attract criminal liabilities and was against the law and she answered in the affirmative to this. Ms. Saliba was also operating an unregistered vehicle and was a repeated offender and the magistrate was made aware of these facts by the prosecution. Traffic violations are criminal offences and are thus acts against the state. In an action where the state is a party it must be taken to trial because it means the social/legal conformity of the accused required to be assessed and thus a court procedure was the only appropriate proceeding for such an issue.

Legal Disputes: Civil and Criminal Cases

The prosecutor then made the court aware of the fact that as a repeated offender she was liable to face imprisonment and a major monetary fine. However the defense objected and the judge agreed that due to the ambiguity in the evidence (because of missing). The police while entering evidence also stated the circumstances of the case in an unbiased manner from the perspective of a third person before apprehension of the accused. Thus, all sides involved in arguing and adjudicating the matter observed their duties with utmost strictness. Further from the interaction between the accused and the magistrate it can be observed that Ms. Saliba was completely aware of the proceedings that were occurring in court. The prosecutor also made it evident that Ms. Saliba was current part of a traffic offender program aimed at helping traffic offenders reintegrate themselves into society as responsible drivers. The fact that she was accused of a repeated offence despite such a program makes it clear that she required harsher imposition from the court and the magistrate duly observed the same. The magistrate held that conviction could be disqualified for another 12 months on the condition that any repeated offence would lead to imprisonment. The accused further wrote a letter of remorse which was submitted by her counsel to the court.

Thus we see a strong conformity with Dicey’s recommendations relating to the rule of law. The first recommendation states that the law should apply to everyone without exception and we see here that despite the accused having valid unavoidable reasons to make such a violation she would still be treated as an accused. The second recommendation states that there should not be a provision for punishment unless a specific breach of legal provisions is established. In this case the accused has violated the law relating to driving without a valid license and thus would be subject to punishment. From the observations of the magistrate it is amply clear that if a specific provision of law had not been contravened the accused would not be subject to any form of punishment. Dicey’s third recommendation states that the judgments delivered by the court would not be influenced by political factors prevalent in the present scenario. Here, the decision of the magistrate was based on a specific contravention of law which was established though evidence. The prosecution and the defense based their arguments solely based on the facts and legal provisions surrounding the offence the final decision was based on the same. Thus, there was no political influence involved in the decision of the court and the judgment delivered observed the theories of justice and fairness completely. Thus Dicey’s theories on the rule of law stand today as it did when they were coined. The rule of law is the supreme norm that courts must adhere to and the same is in practice even today.

Case Study: Traffic Violations and Judicial Review

Conclusion

Thus Dicey’s recommended considerations for the rule of law, which ensures equality before the law, are still adhered to in legal systems today. The rule of law states that there should be equality before the law, no one should be punished unless there is a specific breach of provisions of law and the judgments delivered by the courts should not be influenced by political factors. Thus in Ms. Mary Saliba’s case we see the same principles were followed by the magistrate.

Reference List

Sherman, L. W., & Strang, H. (1997).

It has been indicated through the Canberra Shaming experiments that criminal offenders refrain and are deterred from committing offenses after having gone through and experienced restorative justice approach after court proceedings. It has been assessed that drunk drivers predict the consequences of drunk driving to be dire after they have been caught offending once especially due to their families. The preliminary findings of the Canberra Police conferencing program and the ANU researchers are important to be taken in to consideration to assess the effect of shaming conferences, as critics have criticized have opined shaming conferences as a soft option.

Barnes, G. C., Hyatt, J. M., Angel, C. M., Strang, H., & Sherman, L. W. (2015).

It can be mentioned that criminal justice sanctions are considered to most effective as they are perceived to provide encouragement to the offenders to form moral ties with their repective communities and promote their beliefs concerning the fairness of the legislation and the power of the legal authorities. In accordance with the Procedural justice theory it can be stated that the goals of restorative justice conferences are to provide fair treatment to the offenders and allow such offenders to increase their respect for the law. Restorative justice systems also aim to make the offenders voluntarily conduct themselves in law abiding manner. Restorative and Procedural justice can be described as a process where those who have been affected by wrong doing incidents come together to express and communicate their feelings and provide description of how they had been affected.    

Baird, V.A. and Gangl, A., 2006

Laws can be classified into two broad categories- Substantive law and procedural law. Substantive law defines the provisions of law which regulate and govern the legal standpoint in those issues. The substantive law of the land deals with what the law says and what is legal and what is illegal. Procedural law on the other hand defines the procedure through which legal actions are initiated and adjudicated upon. Thus, procedural laws ensure that the legal disputes brought before a court are disposed off in an uniform way which is defined by procedures. Procedure of law and due process of law are both extensively dependent on the procedures governing a particular dispute.

Bates, L. J., Scott-Parker, B., Allen, S., & Watson, B. (2016).

Road policing can be considered to be a key method which can be used to improve the compliance of drivers with the traffic laws. It can be mentioned that a significant number of injuries and deaths are caused by road accidents.  It has been assessed in this research that the percentage of road accidents caused by young drivers is significantly higher than drivers of older age groups. However, Graduated Drivers Licensing have been able to successfully implement a public health approach to reducing the number of accident caused by young drivers after they start driving by themselves.

Quilter, J., & McNamara, L. J. (2017).

Legislation in all the states of Australia creates offenses and makes provisions for providing roadside testing for drug driving. While random breath analyzer test aims to test whether drivers are under the influence of alcohol while driving, random drug tests typically aims to detect the presence of the three most widely used drugs in Australia which are Cannabis, methamphetamine and ecstasy in the oral fluids of the driver.  This article emphasizes on the need and importance of bringing back drug driving laws in addition to the drunk driving laws in all the states of Australia.

Mills, B. 2011. The criminal trial. Sydney: Federation Press.

Sherman, L.W. and Strang, H., 1997. Restorative justice and deterring crime.

Barnes, G.C., Hyatt, J.M., Angel, C.M., Strang, H. and Sherman, L.W., 2015. Are restorative justice conferences more fair than criminal courts? Comparing levels of observed procedural justice in the reintegrative shaming experiments (RISE). Criminal Justice Policy Review, 26(2), pp.103-130.

Bates, L.J., Scott-Parker, B., Allen, S. and Watson, B., 2016. Young driver perceptions of police traffic enforcement and self-reported driving offences. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 39(4), pp.723-739.

Quilter, J. and McNamara, L.J., 2017. ‘Zero tolerance’drug driving laws in Australia: A gap between rationale and form?.