On January 28, 2015, the High Court of Australia issued a judgment [3] in CPCF v. Minister for Immigration and Border Protection holding that the detention of 157 Tamil asylum seekers at sea was legal under Australian law. A Tamil asylum seeker, known as CPCF, brought suit alleging he had been unlawfully detained and wrongfully imprisoned after an Australian border protection vessel intercepted the Indian-flagged vessel carrying him and 156 other asylum seekers and redirected them to India. After Australia was unable to reach an agreement with India about their discharge, the passengers were transferred to Australia’s Cocos Islands where they were detained under the Maritime Powers Act [4] (MPA), which permits Australia’s maritime officers to detain and take a person to a place outside the migration zone. CPCF argued that in applying the MPA, Australia had breached its international law obligations under Article 33(1) of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees [5] and Article 3(1) of the Convention Against Torture [6] and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Court noted that “[j]udicial authority in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America suggests that a state's obligations under the Convention arise only with respect to persons who are within that state's territory” and held that “Australian courts are bound to apply Australian statute law ‘even if that law should violate a rule of international law.’”