Al-Kateb v Godwin was an important Australian court case decided in
the High Court of Australia on 6 August 2004. It concerned a stateless
man who was detained under the policy of mandatory immigration
detention. His application for a protection visa had been denied, and
because he was stateless no other country would accept him. The issue
in the case was whether indefinite immigration detention was lawful,
and the court ultimately decided that it was. The court considered two
main questions, firstly, whether the Migration Act 1958 (the
legislation which governs immigration in Australia) permitted a person
in Al-Kateb's situation to be detained indefinitely, and secondly, if
it did, whether that was permissible under the Constitution of
Australia. A majority of the court decided that the Act did allow
indefinite detention, and that the Act was not unconstitutional.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Kateb_v_Godwin
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1009:
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church now within the
walled Old City of Jerusalem, was destroyed by the "mad" Fatimid
caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre)
1016:
Danish forces led by Canute the Great decisively defeated Edmund
Ironside in the Battle of Ashingdon, gaining control over most of the
Kingdom of England.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ashingdon)
1851:
Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, was first published as The
Whale.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick)
1922:
The British Broadcasting Company was founded by a consortium to
establish a network of radio transmitters to provide a national
broadcasting service in the United Kingdom.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Broadcasting_Company)
1954:
Texas Instruments introduced the first transistor radio.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio)
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Wikiquote of the day:
Give me my freedom for as long as I be All I ask of livin' is to have
no chains on me All I ask of livin' is to have no chains on me And all
I ask of dyin' is to go naturally... And when I die, and when I'm gone
There'll be one child born, in our world To carry on, to carry on...
-- Laura Nyro
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Laura_Nyro)