846 UNSW Law Journal Volume 35(3) THE HIGH COURT ON CONSTITUTIONAL LAW: THE 2011 STATISTICS ANDREW LYNCH * AND GEORGE WILLIAMS ** I INTRODUCTION This article presents statistical information about the High Court’s decision- making for 2011 at both an institutional and individual level, with an emphasis on constitutional cases as a subset of the total. The results have been compiled using the same methodology 1 employed in previous years. 2 As always, we emphasise the importance of acknowledging the limitations that inhere in an empirical study of the decision-making of the High Court over just one year. In particular, care must be taken not to invest too much significance in the percentage calculations given the modesty of the sample size, especially in respect of the smaller set of constitutional cases. Nevertheless, this annual exercise remains worthwhile in that it offers assistance to those followers * Professor and Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales. ** Anthony Mason Professor, Scientia Professor and Foundation Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales; Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow; Barrister, New South Wales Bar. We thank Harkiran Narulla for his assistance in the preparation of this article. 1 See Andrew Lynch, ‘Dissent: Towards a Methodology for Measuring Judicial Disagreement in the High Court of Australia’ (2002) 24 Sydney Law Review 470, with further discussion in Andrew Lynch, ‘Does The High Court Disagree More Often In Constitutional Cases? A Statistical Study of Judgement Delivery 1981–2003’ (2005) 33 Federal Law Review 485, 488–96. 2 Andrew Lynch, ‘The Gleeson Court on Constitutional Law: An Empirical Analysis of its First Five Years’ (2003) 26 University of New South Wales Law Journal 32; Andrew Lynch and George Williams, ‘The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2003 Statistics’ (2004) 27 University of New South Wales Law Journal 88; Andrew Lynch and George Williams, ‘The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2004 Statistics’ (2005) 28 University of New South Wales Law Journal 14; Andrew Lynch and George Williams, ‘The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2005 Statistics’ (2006) 29(2) University of New South Wales Law Journal 182; Andrew Lynch and George Williams, ‘The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2006 Statistics’ (2007) 30 University of New South Wales Law Journal 188; Andrew Lynch and George Williams, ‘The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2007 Statistics’ (2008) 31 University of New South Wales Law Journal 238; Andrew Lynch and George Williams, ‘The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2008 Statistics’ (2009) 32 University of New South Wales Law Journal 181; Andrew Lynch and George Williams, ‘The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2009 Statistics’ (2010) 33 University of New South Wales Law Journal 267; Andrew Lynch and George Williams, ‘The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2010 Statistics’ (2011) 34 University of New South Wales Law Journal 1030. brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Analysis and Policy Observatory (APO)