ABSTRACT
The House of Lords observed that an army ‘yellow card’ entitled ‘Instructions for opening fire in Northern Ireland’ could, on a literal reading, justify firing on a car where a person had been injured by it, irrespective of the seriousness of the injury. The American Kent State University shootings of 1970, at the height of the movement against the Vietnam War, provide a cautionary example of the difficulties involved in legally holding to account those responsible for shooting down protestors. The Australian legislation provides a case study for considering the many legal and policy issues. The military’s lethal force powers have been extended beyond reasonable force to protect people from death or injury, to the protection of any physical assets declared by an authorising minister as ‘critical infrastructure’. Alleged participants in the incident sought an injunction prohibiting the Commonwealth from disclosing their identities to the Victorian chief police commissioner for the purpose of investigating whether they had committed criminal offences.
