This article considers recent amendments and proposed amendments to Australian law, allowing police to conduct a search of an individual in prescribed cases without the need to show 'reasonable suspicion'. Similar legislation had been passed in the United Kingdom and was recently the subject of litigation in the European Court of Human Rights and the House of Lords, as it was at that stage. It is argued that. similar to the approach of the European Convention on Human Rights, the court should find such legislation to be contrary to the rule of law and to due process. The article also considers the extent to which international law is and should be taken into account in applying Australian law, in the absence of express human rights guarantees.
European Public Law