Andrew Inglis ClarkPrimary architect of Australia's constitution

Constitution as 'A Living Force'

Clark viewed  the Australian Constitution as a living document to be amended and adapted to the people and times. 

... it must be read and construed, not as containing a declaration of the will and intentions of men long since dead, but as declaring the will and intentions of the present inheritors and possessors of sovereign power, who maintain the Constitution and have the power to alter it, and who are in the immediate presence of the problems to be solved. 

It is they who enforce the provisions of the Constitution and make a living force of that which would otherwise be a silent and lifeless document.

Andrew Inglis Clark, Studies in Australian Constitutional Law 1901

Continuing influence

Clark's spirit continues to influence discussions in our parliaments and legal journals, as indicated by the papers below.

• Clark, AI , Essay The future of the Australian Commonwealth: province or nation  University of Tasmania Library Special & Rare Collection, Australia 
• Parliament of Australia, The Truest Patriotism': Andrew Inglis Clark and the Building of the Australian Nation,  Papers on Parliament no.61. May 2014 
•  Kirby, Michael, Reviving the memory of Andrew Inglis Clark: An unfinished federal project [online]. University of Tasmania Law Review, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2015: 92-113.  Availability:<https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=811520240968320;res=IELAPA> ISSN: 0082-2108. [cited 24 May 19]

• Williams, George  Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution , University of Tasmania Law Review, Vol 34, No. 2 , 2015: 114.  This paper is based on the Inaugural Andrew Inglis Clark Lecture delivered at Tasmanian Parliament House, 7 July 2015.