Section 80 of the Commonwealth Constitution applies to the trial on indictment of offences against the Corporations Law (WA) 1990, by force of the State law requiring such offences to be treated as Commonwealth offences, with the consequence that jury verdicts must be unanimous and s 41 of the Juries Act 1957 (WA) (majority verdicts) has no application. The laws of evidence of Western Australia apply to such trials. Section 578 of the Criminal Code (WA) does not apply to indictments for Corporations Law offences. Following the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), existing proceedings have been substituted by equivalent federal proceedings, but the constitutional validity of the transitional provisions remains an open question.
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