•WA: Rules of the Supreme Court 1971 (WA) O 25 rr 1–8
•Vic: Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2015 (Vic) O 62 r 62.02
•For the High Court and Federal Court, see High Court Rules 2004 (Cth) r 59.01 and Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) s 56
•Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) s 1335 (‘Where a corporation is plaintiff in any action or other legal proceeding, the court having jurisdiction in the matter may… require sufficient security to be given for those costs and stay all proceedings until the security is given.’)
Note that the court rules do not replace the inherent jurisdiction of superior courts (here, the state supreme courts). The superior courts have the power to prevent abuse of their process, which comes with it an inherent power to order security for costs.
Dawson J commented: ‘It is unclear whether Coke CJ was intending to say that Acts of Parliament which are repugnant to the common law are void or whether he was merely laying down a rule of statutory interpretation. If he was intending the former, he appears to have had second thoughts, because in his Fourth Institute he described parliament's power as "transcendent and absolute", not confined "either for causes or persons within any bounds". He there contemplated the enactment of bills of attainder without trial and statutes contrary to Magna Carta without any suggestion of their invalidity’.
Hart Publishing - Bloomsbury Academic
