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Key decisions

  • Government of the Russian Federation v Commonwealth [2025] HCA 44
  • Gray v Lavan (A Firm) [2025] HCA 42

Constitutional law

Acquisition of land – ‘on just terms’

In a special case, Government of the Russian Federation v Commonwealth [2025] HCA 44 (12 November 2025), the High Court unanimously answered questions in the affirmative with costs of the special case to be paid by the Commonwealth. The questions were:

  1. Is the Home Affairs Act 2023 (Cth) (‘HA Act’) invalid in its entirety on the ground it is not supported by a head of Commonwealth power?
  2. If the answer to question 1 is ‘no’, does the operation of the HA Act result in the acquisition of property from the plaintiff to which section 51(xxxi) of the Constitution applies?
  3. If the answer to question 2 is ‘yes’, is the Commonwealth liable to pay to the plaintiff a reasonable amount of compensation pursuant to section 6(1) of the HA Act? (at [51]).

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