if you pay closer attention to the text of the Constitution you will see that section 51 gives powers to the federal Parliament to legislate for the peace order and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to a number of subject matters although in previous videos we talked about the characterization of laws we have never really discussed the implications of the expression peace order and good government hello everyone my name is Renato Costa this is rozilo and today we will look at the meaning and implications of the expression peace order and good government in section 51 of the Commonwealth Constitution [Music] foreign good constitutionalism Adrian Vermeer says that the whole idea of the phrase peace order and good government comes from the classical tradition the laws essentially exist to pursue the common good the idea of common good he says relates to human flourishing and in the classical tradition human flourishing could well be summarized in the words of Peace Justice and abundance that's because opium a Roman jurist had said that the common good that is human flourishing relates to live honorably to harm no one and to give each one their due so from opium's idea and the expression peace Justice and abundance we got the words peace order and good government the British Parliament inherited that classical tradition and included the phrase peace order in good government in many of its acts for example the phrase can be traced back to at least 1489 line in the British statute that defines the role of the justice of the peace another example is the colonial Law's validity act from 1865. we have a video about this act here in our Channel remember that if you want to subscribed to our Channel you have probably seen this video before otherwise if you're not subscribed just click the Subscribe button below I mean why wouldn't you well as I said the expression appears in numerous acts in ordinances from the British Parliament and also in the Constitutional documents of some former British colonies as well like for example in article 91 of the Canadian Constitution Act of 1867 and of course section 51 of the Australian constitution of 1901 in in fact it is quite calm to see this phrase in some analogous Expressions here and there variants of it exist in the constitution of South Africa the Constitution Act of New Zealand and the government of Ireland act in Australia we also have different versions of the expression the Commonwealth Constitution says the peace order and good government the Constitutions of the states of Victoria Western Australia and South Australia say exactly the same thing but in the Constitutions of New South Wales Tasmania in Queensland the expression changes a bit it says peace welfare and good government okay now we already understand where this is coming from so you can be asking well this is actually mean is this like a head of power that authorizes the Commonwealth Parliament to legislate about anything is this a further limit on the legislature the high court of Australia has answered no to both questions in a unanimous decision in Union steamship company of Australia in the king from 1988 the high court of Australia revealed decisions of the privy Council related to similar provisions and explained what the expression peace order and good government actually means first their owner said that the power to make laws for the peace welfare and good government of our territory is indistinguishable from the power to make laws for the peace order and good government of our territory such a power is a plenary power and it was so recognized even in an era when emphasis was given to the character of colonial Legends a subordinate law-making bodies so the character and the nature of the provision is the same since the colonial times if it relates the colonies to the formal British colonies or to now independent states the idea behind the peace order and good government phrase or peace welfare and good government has never ever changed what is it then what's the meaning of this expression well it entails plenary Powers according to the justices within the limits of the grant a power to make laws for the peace order and good government of a territory is as ample and plenary as the power possessed by the Imperial Parliament itself that is the words for the peace order and good government are not words of limitation they did not confer on the courts of a colony just as they do not confer on the courts of a state jurisdiction to strike down legislation on the ground that in the opinion of the Court the legislation does not promote or secure the peace order and good government of the colony all in all the expression does not imply a limitation on parliamentary power to the contrary it upsets the plenary powers of the Commonwealth Parliament but look the federal Parliament has no general power to make loss for the peace order and good government of the Commonwealth but only with respect to matters that are specifically enumerated in that section section 51 includes the list of heads of power under which Parliament can legislate about the command to do so for the peace order and good government is not in itself a limitation on how or to what extent Parliament can legislate with respect to those heads of power and so this means that the courts are not to say if what Parliament decided is or not for the peace order and good government of the Commonwealth no court can substitute its own idea of peace and good government for that of the legislature this is an aspect of the idea of parliamentary sovereignty the laws enacted by Parliament cannot be invalidated because they are not aimed at the common good in itself the expression peace order and good government does not make of a particular federal law invalid or unconstitutional Parliament is the one who decides whether the law aims at the common good or not not the courts there's another layer to this phrase and this layer is mostly political since we live in a representative democracy it is up for the people of the Commonwealth and of the state to elect parliamentarians who will promote the common good that is political authorities should always pursue the common good and they should do so by enacting laws that work for the peace order and good government of Australia and of the Australian States if they don't it is for the people to replace them well I hope you enjoyed this video and you learned something else about section 51 of the Commonwealth Constitution if you did I kindly ask you to click the like button and to subscribe to our Channel and if you do subscribe I'll see you again soon until then ciao