Internationalising Constitutional Law: An Inward-Looking Outlook

This article considers how certain domestic policies with respect to immigration have impacted on Australia's diplomatic engagement in the negotiation of international and human rights standards. It considers selected historical examples that illustrate Australia's impulse to internationalise the plenary power of exclusion embodied in ss 51(xix) and (xxvii) of the Constitution. It suggests that this historical impulse has an enduring relevance and is echoed in contemporary attempts to legitimise and normalise controversial aspects of Australia's asylum policy. In this connection, it considers the example of extraterritorial detention and processing of asylum seekers, in particular the issue of resettlement.