CONSIDERATION
41 As noted above, in relation to the history of the proceeding before this Court, I initially granted the appellant an extension of time for filing his notice of appeal but limited the appeal to a single ground concerning natural justice. At that point, the appellant was self-represented, although he had been legally represented in the proceeding below before the Federal Magistrate.
42 However, I also, in granting an extension of the time to appeal on these terms, made an order that provided for a pro bono referral. That referral was responded to by Dr J Cameron, who then appeared thereafter as the pro bono lawyer and counsel representing the appellant.
43 When the matter came on for hearing before me, Dr Cameron, as pro bono counsel endeavoured to raise other issues, on the instructions of his client, concerning the jurisdiction of the Federal Magistrates Court to have dealt with the proceeding at all, having regard to the terms of s 494AA of the Migration Act.
44 Obviously, the Court had not earlier received an indication that such a jurisdictional ground was or might be taken. Obviously it was not an issue raised before the Federal Magistrates Court. It appears in that sense to have been an issue that pro bono counsel considered relevant and was pressed on instructions from his client, appreciating that if successful then the current proceedings would come to an end and presumably the matter would have to be agitated in a different forum.
45 No particular opposition was raised at the time on behalf of the first respondent. The general position was, I consider, that both the Court and the first respondent proceeded on the basis that if there was a demonstrable bar to the proceedings in the Federal Magistrates Court it was better the matter be dealt with on the appeal, rather than the Court allow some impermissible course to be perpetrated.
46 The next thing that happened was that during the hearing of the appeal, in the course of argument, the Court raised a question about the jurisdiction of the Federal Magistrates Court under s 476 of the Migration Act. This raised an issue concerning the application of the relatively recent decision of the Full Federal Court in SZQDZ. The Court provided for the parties to put on further submissions in relation to that question.
47 Following this, counsel for the appellant then took the further step of raising a Constitutional issue when he suggested that when all was said and done, there may not be a "matter" the subject of the proceeding. The Court heard some preliminary debate about that and whether notices should be filed under s 78B of the Judicial Act 1903 (Cth). It appeared that they should be but relatively soon after the appellant abandoned that issue.
48 In my view, while some question may be raised about the latitude assumed by counsel for the appellant and so inferentially by the appellant as to what issues could and should be raised on the appeal, I am not minded to make an order that the appellant pay the first respondent's costs in respect of the jurisdictional and other issues raised subsequent to the appointment of pro bono counsel. Rather, I consider that there should be no order as to costs in respect of those matters. Certainly, this is a case where the appellant, having lost on the jurisdictional questions and to some limited extent wasted the Court's and the first respondent's time in relation to the purported Constitutional issue, little time was spent on the Constitutional issue and certainly insufficient, in my view, to require an order that the appellant pay costs in respect of that matter. It was initially raised relatively tentatively and soon enough went away.
49 So far as the s 476 question was concerned, that was raised by the Court. It might be said that counsel for the appellant seized on the issue and argued for a particular consequence about it, but in my view that was not impermissible and in fact it helped to have one party advocating a view and the other party, the first respondent, contradicting that view, and that was of some assistance to the Court. In the event, the Court found that it was bound to apply the decision of the Full Federal Court as properly understood. For those reasons, I do not think that the appellant should in effect be penalised by a costs order against him in respect of argument on that issue which was, in the end, an unsuccessful issue from the appellant's point of view.
50 The remaining two issues concerned s 494AA of the Migration Act, where the appellant, by reference to two provisions, suggested there was a bar to the makings of the proceedings in the Federal Magistrates Court. As noted above, if there were properly to be found a bar, then those proceedings should not have been maintained in the Federal Magistrates Court. In the event, I was not satisfied that the arguments put could be successful. I do not think it is appropriate to be critical of pro bono counsel, in all of the circumstances, in relation to this point. As noted above, the first respondent and the Court proceeded to deal with these issues when they were raised. I consider it was recognised all round, including by the first respondent, that these could be important issues, even though the first respondent rejected the substance of the submissions put.
51 In my view, in all of the circumstances, whilst real time, both in the oral hearing and in the written submissions was spent dealing with jurisdictional issues that in the end were not successful, from the appellant's point of view, this is not a case which, in my judgment, calls for a costs order to be made against the appellant.
52 To some extent in exercising my discretion to award or not to award costs judicially, as I must, I do take into account the fact that this was initially an appeal by a self represented party in relation to a migration decision in which the assistance of pro bono counsel was considered to be likely of assistance. That is a circumstance which I think may reasonably ameliorate what might happen in another case, by way of costs orders, which are different in nature from this proceeding. That is not to say that in every case where an appellant in a migration matter, or a party in any other proceeding, who is represented by pro bono counsel, pursuant to the Rules of the Court, should automatically or otherwise receive some special consideration. But, taking into account all the circumstances of this particular case, I am not inclined to make an award of costs against the appellant in respect of the matters on which he was unsuccessful.
53 So far as the authorities are concerned there is no doubt the Court has ample power to make costs orders that, if it is appropriate, recognise that a party who was successful overall on a matter but was unsuccessful on some particular, discrete and substantial issue along the way, might have their entitlement to costs reduced or a costs order against them in respect of the lost issue. Some of the authorities disclose that may be an appropriate approach, for example, in relation to litigation for patent infringement where there may be a number of discrete issues. The authorities show that there may well be other such cases. The Court certainly should bear in mind that parties should be discouraged from raising discrete issues which have no real chance of success, thereby causing the proceedings to be larger and longer than they ought be. But taking into account all of those factors, as I have indicated, I am satisfied that in this case the way the jurisdictional issues were raised and developed and dealt with make it reasonable that, while the appellant should have his costs on the appeal in relation to the sole ground of appeal for which leave to extend the time for making the appeal was granted, and should not be entitled to recover costs in respect of the lost jurisdictional issues, it is not appropriate that there should be a positive order against the appellant to pay the costs of the first respondent in respect of the lost jurisdictional issues or the Constitutional issue that was not in the end pursued.