Analysis: Right to liberty, unconstitutional constitutional amendments, and foreign judges in PNG

Blog of the IACL, AIDC

By Anna Dziedzic, a PhD Candidate at Melbourne Law School, Australia. Her research examines the appointment of foreign judges to courts of constitutional jurisdiction in the Pacific.

On 26 April 2016, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea held that the detention of asylum seekers transferred by Australia to Manus Island, PNG, was contrary to their right to personal liberty under PNG’s Constitution. The decision clearly has political and legal ramifications for Australia’s policies on asylum seekers, under which asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat are detained, and potentially resettled, in Papua New Guinea and Nauru (see further discussion, eg here and here). The focus of my analysis, however, is what the judgment says about constitutional law in PNG and what it contributes to current discussions in comparative constitutional law.

The Court’s decision in Namah v Pato SCA 84/2013

While all five judges agreed on the result…

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