National Uniform Legislation

This book aims to develop a conceptual framework upon which to draw for analysis of new and existing national reforms in Australia. Due to growth in the volume and complexity of national uniform legislation, law reform agencies, the Commonwealth, state and territory governments and policy institutions have more, rather than less, to do. This book explores how they are required to respond to debates among actors from divergent geographical, commercial and ideological backgrounds, who sometimes demonstrate irreconcilable differences in values and perspectives. From a policy implication perspective, this book summarises a vast quantity of original and complex data so that it can be applied in the field—among policymakers, reformers, legislative drafters, students and the wider audience of legal practitioners working with harmonised legislation in federations. This book acknowledges that uniform legislation is not a panacea for all legal challenges currently faced byfederations. However, this book takes a step towards demystifying the many confusing factors that have obscured the underlying general principles. A working theory of ‘federal harmonisation’ enables ‘the art of the impossible’ to become a practical reality. This book condenses data on legislation in models. The models enable transparent, evidence-based decisions in the process of a federation’s harmonisation to progress regulatory best practices and achieve more reliable, sustainable results.