Since 1990 Australia has broken away from the mainstream common law approach in jurisdictional disputes (forum conveniens) and set a high bar for declining jurisdiction and the release of disputes to other sovereign jurisdictions. Australian Courts will retain jurisdiction unless it is clearly an inappropriate forum (adopting a forum inconveniens test). Mere inconvenience is inadequate – it must be oppressively so often with an element of abuse of process. This low comity app

Lessons from Australian organisations from United States v Heppner The challenge (and promise) of generative AI continues apace – including for lawyers, clients and courts, particularly in the context of privileged communications. While privilege is “an important common law right or, perhaps, more accurately, an important common law immunity”,[1] where conduct occurs that is inconsistent with privilege, legal professional privilege can be lost. And it is here that the use of

In Farmer v Minister for Home Affairs (S160/2024), the High Court of Australia issued a unanimous decision on 15 October 2025, upholding the Minister’s refusal of a Class GG Temporary Activity visa to Candace Owens Farmer, a U.S. political commentator. This case turns on the character test in section 501(6)(d)(iv) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), which raises complex constitutional questions about freedom of political communication. Background & Procedural Context Farmer appl