The charter's irremediable remedies provision

Abstract

While many of the key provisions of the landmark Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) are adapted from established overseas statutes, one is entirely unique to Victoria: s 39(1). Alas, s 39(1) - the Charter's remedies provision - is also entirely unsatisfactory. This article argues that the provision has an unclear purpose, does not mean what it says, has been interpreted in conflicting and unfortunate ways by leading commentators, and may both bar and permit a quite different set of remedies for Charter breaches than those that its drafters had in mind. The author argues that it should be replaced with the remedy provision recently adopted in the ACT.