Following the High Court decisions in S134 and S157, the Federal Court's jurisdiction under s 39B of the Judiciary Act to review Tribunal decisions extends to all jurisdictional errors, not merely Hickman grounds. NAAV is no longer binding authority on this point. The 'general laws' exception to persecution must be assessed by reference to the substantive discriminatory effect of the law, not merely its formal generality. The verbatim repetition of factually erroneous findings across multiple cases by the same Tribunal member may give rise to apprehended bias constituting jurisdictional error.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 12 later cases that cite this judgment.
4 of the 12 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.