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  • Essay / The Commonwealth of Australia: the Constitution and...

    The Constitution and the protection of rightsThe Constitutional Act of the Commonwealth of Australia (United Kingdom) 1901 is a document which describes the structures and legislative powers of the Commonwealth Parliament. This document provides for the protection of rights in three ways. First, rights are protected by structural protections, which are a system of checks and balances put in place by the founders of the constitution to protect human and democratic rights by ensuring that absolute power is not held by a single body , thus avoiding corruption or abuse by the Commonwealth. power. Some of these structural protections include the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches, the bicameral parliament and the principles of representative and responsible government (articles 7, 24, 28, 13) which protect our right to vote by providing government “directly chosen by the people” through elections, and is therefore a government that defends the views of the majority of the population and is accountable to Parliament and the public. Second, rights are also protected by express rights which are rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution and which can only be changed by referendum. The five explicit rights protected by the constitution include: acquisition of property on fair terms (article 51), trial by jury for criminal acts (article 80), freedom of movement (article 92), freedom of religion (article 116) and the absence of discrimination between States .117). And thirdly, implied rights provide a means of protection because, in interpreting the Constitution and considering many cases, the High Court of Australia recognizes other rights belonging to Australians that the founders of the constitution had…. . middle of paper... ...territory [2013] HCA 55. (January 1, 2013). Australian Human Rights Commission. Retrieved April 19, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. from http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/commonwealth-v-australian-capital-territory-2013-hca-55 Gill, K. (January 1, 2014). How is the US Constitution amended? About.com American politics. Accessed at 11:30 a.m., April 18, 2014, from http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/a/amendments.htmLearning. (January 1, 2014). Separation of powers: Parliament, Executive and Judicial. Retrieved 2:00 p.m., April 18, 2014, from http://www.peo.gov.au/learning/fact-sheets/separation-of-powers.htmlTwomey, A. (December 12, 2013). ACT law guarantees neither marriage nor equality: High Court verdict. The conversation. Retrieved 5:00 p.m. April 19, 2014 from http://theconversation.com/act-law-delivers-neither-marriage-nor-equality-the-high-courts-verdict-21406