LAWS passed in April that allowed Supreme Court trials to proceed without a jury amidst COVID-19 restrictions may have breached the ACT government’s constitutional powers, according to a new paper. Published in “Current Issues in Criminal Justice”, the paper argues that the bill passed by the ACT government, allowing for judge-alone trials without the consent of the accused, may violate the Kable doctrine for “fundamentally changing the mode of trial in the Supreme Court”. According to the Kable doctrine, state and territory legislation that impairs the court’s institutional integrity is constitutionally invalid. The paper also highlights that there were more appropriate alternatives such as the models adopted by NSW and Victoria, which saw judge-alone trials only under the decision of the defendant.