D'Emden V Pedder

D'Emden v Pedder was a significant Australian court case decided in the High Court of Australia on 26 April 1904. It directly concerned the question of whether salary receipts of federal government employees were subject to state stamp duty, but it touched on the broader issue within Australian constitutional law of the degree to which the two levels of Australian government were subject to each other's laws.

The case was the first of several in which the High Court applied the implied immunity of instrumentalities doctrine, which held that the state and Commonwealth governments were normally immune from each other's laws, and which, along with the reserved State powers doctrine, would be a significant feature of Australian constitutional law until both doctrines were thrown out in the landmark Engineers' case.

The case is also significant as the first case decided by the High Court involving the interpretation of the Constitution of Australia.