![handle is hein.journals/unswform2023 and id is 1 raw text is: [2023] No 1 Review: Zines and Stellios's The High Court and the Constitution
REVIEW: ZINES AND STELLIOS'S THE HIGH COURT AND THE
CONSTITUTION (7TH EDITION)
STEPHEN FREE*
Review of Zines and Stellios's The High Court and the Constitution
(James Stellios, The Federation Press, 7th ed, 2022, ISBN
9781760023706)
With the release ofthe seventh edition of The High Court and the Constitution,
James Stellios has taken full intellectual ownership of the iconic work of Professor
Leslie Zines. It is fitting that with this edition the book is now, for the first time,
badged as Zines and Stellios's The High Court and the Constitution. Professor
Zines set out to explain the governing dynamics of the nation's founding
document. Stellios extends the exercise to recent developments without losing
either the integrity or the distinctive tone of his predecessor's work. The slimline
text of the Zines era has become a publication of doorstop proportions, but Stellios
has managed to maintain the intellectual elegance of the earlier editions.
The result is a publication that will provide ever greater returns as a reference
work for those seeking to understand the principles that now apply in most of the
key battlegrounds of constitutional conflict. Inevitably, given the scale ofthe work,
the reader must search harder for the throughlines of explanation that Zines sought
to discern. However, the breadth and ambition of the analysis undertaken by
Stellios keeps faith with the approach of Zines. The work retains a focus on the
historical perspective, building on the account in the first chapter of the 'Struggle
for Standards in the early years of the High Court and culminating in the
Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd.2 The emphasis
on historical development is not a matter of mere accretion of references overtime,
like legal coral. Within each chapter, the explanation of principle is made part of
an historical account of the Australian concept of federalism and the continual
shifts in understanding of the governing principles.
The evolution of the text itself is in many ways a reflection of the evolution of
the Constitution in its interpretation and application by the High Court. The early
editions documented the various demarcation disputes that required the High Court
to give content to the Australian conception of federalism. Battles fought in the
context of characterisation (for the purposes of section 51 powers in particular),
fiscal relations and intergovernmental immunities gave rise to a relatively settled
understanding of the respective positions ofthe Commonwealth and the States and
Territories. Zines showed how these cases had their roots in the early struggle for
standards. However, as later editions of the work explained, there is no such thing
Senior Counsel, Eleven Wentworth Chambers.
James Stellios, Zines and Stellios's The High Court and the Constitution (The Federation Press, 7th ed,
2022) ch 1.
2 Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd (1920) 28 CLR 129.
1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/unswform2023&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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