In a migration law judgment of the Federal Court handed down on 1 August 2025 in Sydney, Justice Michael Lee opened with the words
“There seems to be a deeply entrenched misconception among some practitioners of this Court that migration litigation is some form of Galápagos Island where the ordinary rules do not apply …”,
that case involving a party’s continued inability to have submissions filed on time: CVDQ v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (Adjournment Application) [2025] FCA 936.
The reference to the Galápagos Islands seems to have been geographically metaphorical – laws developed in isolation – rather than made with reference to the Ecuadorian legal system, which applies in the Galápagos, which would have been a little unkind.
That comment is then elaborated upon by several earlier references by Justice Lee to the Galápagos Islands.
- “Although sometimes it might seem the case procedurally, class actions are not the litigation equivalent of the Galápagos Islands ….”: Williams v Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited (Initial Trial) [2022] FCA 344;
- “There is an apparent tendency on the part of some practitioners to treat migration appeals as the Galápagos Islands existing apart from the practice and procedure relating to appeals in this Court”: BXU16 v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2018] FCA 1897;
- “Fair work litigation should not be some type of Galápagos Islands where evidentiary rules and notions of fairness applying in other types of litigation as to proof of knowledge do not apply”: Patrick Stevedores Holdings Pty Limited v Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union [2019] FCA 451; and
- “It has been remarked that the law of defamation is the Galápagos Islands Division of the Australian law of torts …”: Pettiona v Nationwide News Pty Limited [2019] FCA 1690.
That last judgment reveals what may be an all but one prime source of the reference to the Galápagos Islands, even if not their relevance, being the title of an article on the law of defamation – “Is Defamation the ‘Galápagos Islands Division’ of the Australian Law of Torts?”, by Andrew Hemming,[1] which he himself adopted from what appears to be the original source, a 2007 article by the late Justice David Ipp, ‘Themes in the Law of Torts’, p 6, a speech delivered at the Judges’ Review Conference, Sydney, on 16 March 2007 in which he states that he now comes in his talk
“to the Galápagos Islands Division of the law of torts, namely, defamation”.
Will it catch on?
The term may or may not catch on, although it may have started to already.
In a judgment of the Federal Court also handed down on 1 August 2025, in Brisbane, Justice Roger Derrington was likewise critical of the conduct of a matter before him involving a dispute over $60,000 which “on any view, … is a trivial amount to be litigated in this Court”, and where costs were disproportionate.
After setting out the statutory obligations of parties in relation to the conduct of litigation in the Court, Justice Derrington said that
“Litigation in this Court in 2025 is not some form of Galápagos Island where the ordinary rules do not apply”,
citing CVDQ v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [2025] FCA 936.
Further citings will be monitored.
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[1] Hemming, Andrew — “Is Defamation the ‘Galapagos Islands Division’ of the Australian Law of Torts?” (2009) 11 The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review 84
