Hon’ble Justice Andrew Bell, President, Court of Appeal, NSW, Australia on Cordial relations between India & Australia
What is the common ground between Australia and India?
Australia and India have much more in common than simply a nation’s love for cricket. Both countries are stable democracies, federations with written constitutions and dynamic economies.
Our systems of commerce are underpinned by the common law, and decisions of the Supreme Court of India have been cited both in the High Court of Australia3 (our equivalent to the Supreme Court of India) and in the New South Wales Court of Appeal,4 the busiest intermediate appellate court in Australia.
We also share a system for dispute resolution inherited from England, characterised by the adversarial system and the disposition of cases by an independent judiciary. There have been high level judicial delegations between our nations in recent decades with senior judges from both Australia and India visiting each other’s jurisdictions to discuss common features of our legal systems.5[i]
More so, both of our nations are also parties to the New York Convention of 1958 on International Arbitration, that most successful of all international treaties, and decisions such as those of the Indian Supreme Court closely align with decisions of Australian courts in the interpretation of both the Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law as municipally implemented.
The assent given in early August this year to amendments to the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 and the proposed creation of an Arbitration Council of India and an independent New Delhi International Arbitration Centre based upon the recommendations of the Sri Krishna Committee highlights the importance which the Indian Government places on international commercial dispute resolution. Such is a necessary concomitant of a dynamic, liberalised modern economy.
Apart from this what other major areas where you feel the two nations have a cordial relation?
The two countries are well-knit with each other at a professional level, there are many lawyers of Indian ethnicity practising in Australia, including at very senior levels, both at the Australian Bar as well as in leading law firms. They form part of a significant Indian diaspora in Australia, estimated at nearly three quarters of a million people, a number which has doubled in the past 10 years. Two of the leading senior counsel in the field of white-collar crime in New South Wales and indeed throughout Australia are of Indian ethnicity, as are two of the leading commercial barristers in Western Australia.
- What about the Visa norms? Are Indians easily given Visa to Australia viz., work or student visa?
That becomes clearer when you see a large number of Indian students studying or who have recently studied law in Australia. According to one source, four of the top 20 law schools in the world are in Australia.8 Last year, over 75,000 Indian students enrolled at Australian tertiary institutions. I would anticipate that a good percentage of these are studying law.
Adding further
Justice Andrew Bell Said, Honourable Simon Birmingham MP, the Australian
Minister for Trade in an address to the Australian Financial Review India
Business Summit 2018, said, “It has enormous potential for positive
impacts for the future … a lot of friendships, a lot of contacts, a major
brain trust and a cultural understanding that will transcend our business,
commercial, cultural, governmental, diplomatic and security contacts and
relations for years to come.” Lawyers will inevitably play a role in those
growing relationships.
The excerpts are from Hon’ble Justice Andrew Bell, President, Court of Appeal, NSW, Australia’s Keynote Address on INBA’s 8th Annual International Conference, 2019
Babita Sharma
Editor, Indian National Bar Association