ABSTRACT
Australia is a federation comprising six states and two self-governing territories, each with its own government. The Commonwealth government has power under the Commonwealth Constitution to make laws with respect to enumerated heads of power. In South Australia and Tasmania the lower house is called the House of Assembly and in the other states it is called the Legislative Assembly. From a practical point of view, Australia operates under essentially the same legislation as that which was struck down by the High Court. Prior to the early 1960s Australian states and territories had their own companies’ legislation and there were significant and inconvenient differences between them. Australian corporations law derives from mid-nineteenth century English company law. Limited liability has its complementary principle of capital maintenance which is reflected in many provisions of the Corporations Law. At the federal level there is the Federal Court of Australia, which has federal appellate jurisdiction and some original jurisdiction.
