§ 327. “Laws Conferring Original Jurisdiction."
In the absence of federal legislation, the original jurisdiction of the High Court will be limited to the cases mentioned in the five sub-sections of sec. 75; but this section empowers the Federal Parliament to extend that jurisdiction to any or all of the cases mentioned in the four sub-sections. The Federal Parliament has no power to confer original jurisdiction upon the High Court except what is given to it by this section; the affirmation of the power in particular cases excluding it in all others. (See Story,
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Comm. § 1703; Kent, Comm. i. 316. The High Court is therefore prohibited by the Constitution from taking original cognizance of any matter not within the scope of this and the preceding section.
The cases mentioned in this section are cases in which the Convention did not think it absolutely essential, at the outset, that the High Court should have original jurisdiction; but in which, on the other hand, such jurisdiction was appropriate and might prove to be highly desirable. While confirming within narrow limits the original jurisdiction actually given by the Constitution, they entrusted to the Parliament the power of extending that jurisdiction to other cases of a specially Federal or inter-state character.