Photograph of notes for the case Pedder vs D'Emden

Photograph of notes for the case Pedder vs D'Emden. Although his forte was constitutional law, as a Judge Clark's time was divided between presiding in jury trials in civil and criminal jurisdictions, hearing civil cases as the sole Judge, and receiving appeals from lower courts. One of his most celebrated cases, Pedder v. D'Emden involved constitutional law and the doctrine of intergovernmental immunities. This was the first important constitutional law case heard by the High Court, which supported Clark's dissenting judgment and established the principle that the judiciary had authority under the Constitution to determine the limits of the powers of the Commonwealth and State Parliaments and to invalidate legislation which exceeded those powers