Public law

The declaration of Melbourne's CBD as a designated area permitting increased police search powers was justified to prevent violence, the Victoria government told a court Friday.

Protesters challenging Melbourne CBD's ‘designated area’ status claim enhanced Victoria Police search powers were a "significant" breach of their rights, a court heard on the first day of trial Thursday.

A constitutional challenge to the declaration of the Melbourne CBD as a ‘designated area’ has been attacked by the state government as “hypothetical”, but the case is set to move ahead despite an early end to the designation.

Protesters bringing a constitutional challenge over the declaration of the Melbourne CBD as a 'designated area' want to join a third person to the case after the police assistant commissioner argued the current applicants have no standing.

Class action settlements hit major milestones last year, with the year’s largest settlements totalling $1.6 billion and one case resolving for a historic $548.5 million.

Fresh off a record settlement for the Robodebt scandal, the government is facing a new class action over a law that retroactively allowed it to impose card payment surcharges, which the suit says amounts to unjust enrichment.

In its writ to the High Court on Friday, Reddit says Australia's social media ban for children under 16 years old “directly burdens” the country's implied freedom of political communication.

The applicant in an immigration detention class action that was discontinued four years ago wants to revive the proceedings, arguing the solicitors and the court misunderstood a High Court decision as dooming the case. 

Veteran of the NSW bar Edward Muston SC has been sworn in as the newest judge of the state's Supreme Court, but before he was prosecuting high stakes environmental law cases, his plan was to be a jackaroo.

A parliamentary committee has said the Victorian government must release all evidence supporting the demolition of 44 public housing towers in Melbourne, some of which are the subject of a dismissed class action that is being appealed.