New HCA Judgments

Two new judgments were published today. The decisions were largely unanimous except that Heydon J, again, put his two bobs worth in on both decisions. We'll have the summaries up soon but for now:

Republic of Croatia v Snedden [2010] HCA 14

The Court allowed an appeal from the federal Court and ordered the extradition of Daniel Sneddon, AKA alleged war criminal Captain Dragan. Croatian Courts treat service in the Croatian armed forces as a mitigating factor in its criminal law. Of Course, Sneddon, having served in the Serbian forces, would not be afforded this benefit. Sneddon argued that this meant that on return to Croatia, he would be “punished, detained or restricted in his ... personal liberty, by reason of his ... political opinions” according to the Extradition Act 1988 (Cth). The Court found that the absence of the mitigating factor was not sufficient to support an objection to extradition under the Act.

As I have posted about in the past, the High Court handed down judgment in this matter some time ago, but had reserved its reasons until today. Following that judgment Sneddon went AWOL and eluded the AFP for some time. It’s interesting that this was handed down just after Sneddon was finally brought into custody.

E & J Gallo Winery v Lion Nathan Australia Pty Ltd [2010] HCA 15

This Case related to the Trade Mark of Barefoot, which was registered by Gallo and sought to be used by Lion Nathon. The Court allowed the appeal from the Federal Court where Gallo’s Trade Mark had been removed from the register for “non-use”. The principal issue in the case is what constitutes “use” under the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) but there are also some interesting subsidiary issues such as what constitutes an “authorised user” of a Trade Mark.

Also, check out the neat images in the Austlii version (at [8] and [12]). I wonder if there will come a time when the Court embeds video or audio to a judgment, say on a copyright claim.