Limitations of a Charter of Rights in the Age of Counter-Terrorism

A central claim made by Australian proponents of a charter of rights like the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) ('Victorian Charter') is that it will improve the protection of human rights in the field of counter-terrorism. This article provides a critique of this claim by identifying the risk that the Victorian Charter will take a court-centred trajectory - a course that may undermine the protection of human rights. It further argues that comparative arguments, especially those based on the Human Rights Act 1998 (UK) c 42, are problematic. The article concludes by sketching out an alternative to a court-centred approach to the Victorian Charter by drawing upon the idea of a community-based charter of rights