Library & Innovation Centre

In Australia, laws are made:
* by politicians in Parliament
* by judges making decisions about court cases.
Parliament-made law overrules judge-made law if both apply to a case.

A definition of the statutory and common law.

Law can be divided up in a number of ways. It can be divided into ‘statute law’ and ‘common law’, and can also be divided into ‘public law’ and ‘private law’.
Under this system, public law deals with relations between individuals and the state, and private law deals with relations between individuals (meaning individual people or organisations).

The main function of the law is to protect the lives, liberties, rights and property of citizens. There are two fundamental areas of law: criminal law and civil law.

Australia is unusual among common law countries in not having a statutory or Constitutional Charter or Bill of Rights.

Australia’s common law has a basis in the common law of England, and the word ‘common’ is an indication that the rules applied to everyone.

The County Koori Court is a specialist court that aims to achieve more participation of the Victorian Aboriginal (Koori) community in the sentencing process in the County Court. It seeks to achieve this through the inclusion of Aboriginal Elders or Respected Persons
from the Aboriginal community and Koori Court Officers in the sentencing process in the County Court.

An outline of key recommendations to recognise Aboriginal customary laws within the Australian Legal System.