Gray on "Internment of Terrorist Suspects and the Australian Constitution"

Professor Anthony Gray of the USQ School of Law and Justice has published a new article in Volume 93(4) of the Australian Law Journal.  The article is titled "Internment of Terrorist Suspects and the Australian Constitution".  Here is the abstract:

"This article considers constitutional questions that arise in relation to recent calls for internment in Australia with respect to those suspected of engagement in terrorism activity. Internment has been practised in the past in Australia with respect to war or warlike conditions, though the extent to which Australia is currently “at war” is of course highly contested. Laws in various Australian States, and at federal level, also currently contemplate preventive detention, though this is in the context of individuals who have already been convicted and sentenced for crime. As such, the current proposal differs significantly from preventive detention as currently practised in Australia. The article considers whether the Commonwealth’s defence power would likely support such a scheme, whether it would be valid if the power were reposed in a member of the Executive, and whether it would be valid if reposed in a court. As a result, it considers whether such schemes are punitive in nature, and the essential character of such a power. The article is focused on the constitutionality of such a scheme, rather than its merits as public policy."