Government under the Law: The Ebb and Flow of Sovereignty in Australia

The 'Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co. Ltd.' (Engineers' case) doctrine, formulated in 1920, drastically reduced the restrictive potential of the Constitution, thereby shifting it towards the sovereignty model. However, the High Court of Australia implied constitutional rights contradicting with the Engineers' doctrine in the 1990s, since it did not agree with the fundamental features of the Constitution, namely separation of powers, representative principle the rule of law and federal structure, thereby shifting it from a sovereign model to the republican model.