Government has s monopoly on force
Its opponents included factions that had been the previous government of 1935.
At least three dozen were known to have served with the International Brigades, actually fighting on the Republican side.Īs it happens, the Republican side was that of the government elected in 1936. Maybe.īetween 19 at least 66 idealistic Australians journeyed to Europe to join the tens of thousands of other foreigners participating in the Spanish Civil War. Read his or her mind correctly in advance and you can get away with it. This is another one of those many Acts where criminal prosecution is subject to the approval of the Attorney General. If, that is, the Attorney General of Australia were to authorise prosecution. Had Australian troops arrived in Baghdad first in 2003, they could have pulled down Saddam's statue without fear of this Act.īut had a group of Australian irregulars snuck into Iraq a week or two before and dynamited Saddam's statue, they could have faced a couple of decades in jail back home. Unless, of course, you are an Australian service person under orders, then you can go inflict all the mayhem the Australian Government wants on specified foreign officials and statues. Or terrorising the population (6(3)(b)) or, you know, actually fighting the foreign State (6(3)(a) and (aa)). They also include injuring a public office holder of the foreign State (6(3)(c)). Yes, it's right there in paragraph 6(3)(d) of the Act: engaging in hostile activities includes "unlawfully destroying or damaging any real or personal property belonging to the government of the foreign state or of a part of the foreign state." Were an Australian to sneak into North Korea and blow up a statue of Kim Jong-Un, he (or she, but to be fair it is more often he) would be subject to up to 20 years in prison if he manages to get back here. In short, the law criminalises an Australian fighting a foreign regime, but not an Australian working for a foreign regime in fighting others. the armed forces of" the Syrian Government. The right side under the law would have been "in any capacity in or with. That was a foreign war in which he was fighting, and he was on the wrong side from the point of view of Australian law. That would have been bad news for Caner Temel, the young idealistic former Australian soldier, had he not died in January while fighting in Syria. It passed the Crimes (Foreign Incursions And Recruitment) Act 1978, which outlawed Australian citizens and residents fighting on certain sides in foreign wars. The Fraser Government went international with that. If an agent of the government kills you in accordance with the rules set by the government, then there can be no punishment.
If I kill you, my action is illegitimate and I can be punished. One definition of "government" is the national institution with a legal monopoly on force. It all depends on who you're fighting for. Had the idealistic former Australian soldier, Caner Temel, not died while fighting in Syria, he would have run afoul of a little-known law that monopolises our government's use of force, writes Stephen Dawson.