Video link evidence and foreign government consent

Where the Federal Court proposes to take evidence of a witness in a foreign country by video link, the court's discretion is not hampered by any need to consider questions of sovereignty or comity between nations, such as whether the foreign government consents, at least absent any law of the foreign country forbidding the procedure. That was the conclusion of the full court of the Federal Court (Keane CJ, Dowsett and Greenwood JJ) in Joyce v Sunland Waterfront (BVI) Ltd. The court overturned the decision of the primary judge (Logan J), who had declined to permit evidence by video link where the foreign government indicated it did not consent.