The Chapter III problem - Reimagining the Australian Military Justice System

In 2005, the Senate’s Report on “The Effectiveness of Australia’s Military Justice System” prompted the Government to announce significant reforms to the military justice system. The principal change was the establishment of a permanent non-Chapter III Australian Military Court. In Lane v Morrison, the High Court of Australia unanimously declared that the AMC was unconstitutional as it breached Chapter III of the Constitution. Former Labor Governments introduced Bills to establish a properly constituted Chapter III military court to try service offences under the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982, but both these bills lapsed on the proroguing of their respective Parliaments.

With the election of a new Labor Government in May 2022, this seminar will raise for discussion a new proposal for the establishment of a specialist Chapter III military court and a new form of service tribunal to address the problem where the Chapter III military court cannot or will not sit outside Australia in war or war-like operations (Australian Court Martial Tribunal) or, alternatively, that the ACMT should now take the place of all service tribunals in peacetime and in war.

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This is an in-person event and will also be available online via livestream.