ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the power enjoyed by Attorneys-General and their Solicitors-General to intervene in Australian constitutional cases. It enhances an argument that the public should have the opportunity to provide input into the development of constitutional policy that informs interventions. The chapter outlines the historical development of interventions in constitutional cases. The emergence of a High Court practice of granting leave to Attorneys-General to intervene to protect the public interest in constitutional cases mirrored the federal preoccupations of the early court. The early constitutional jurisprudence of the Australian High Court was largely concerned with the division of power between the Commonwealth national government and the States. The potential for the Attorneys-General and their Solicitors-General to influence the High Court in constitutional cases was expanded considerably in 1976, when the Commonwealth amended the Judiciary Act to accord the Commonwealth and the States a statutory right of intervention in constitutional cases.
