The Australian and the Law

by Geoffrey Sawer

Australian law may derive from and in places closely resemble English law, but time and geography have given it notable differences. It is on these differences that Geoffrey Sawer lays the emphasis in the Australian companion to Ronald Rubinstein's John Citizen and the Law.

The book explains to the man in the street the legal framework of Australian society and outlines his rights and obligations within it. Geoffrey Sawer shows how Australian legislators and courts, perhaps ironically, have often remained faithful to a Common Law which in England is gradually being abandoned or modified. But principally the author covers those areas of the law which are peculiarly Australian - for example, the distribution of federal and state law and legislation concerned with property, torts, divorce, and immigration. Prominent among these are the discriminatory laws, still applying in some states, which control the living, working, voting, and even drinking rights of the aborigines.

Geoffrey Sawer's authoritative guide to the main principles of Australian law (which are unlikely to be varied much by present proposals for reform) is both a handy layman's synopsis and basic reading for students.

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968