The Australian Tax Office had obtained information from the Paradise Paper-leak and used the information in a tax assessment of Glencore. Glencore held that such leaked information was confidential (protected by legal professional privilege) and could not be used in a tax assessment. On that basis Glencore filed an appeal to the High Court. High Court Decision The Australien High Court dismissed the appeal and allowed use of the leaked information for tax assessment purposes. “In no way do these cases support the notion that common law courts elsewhere are granting injunctions with respect to privileged material on the basis only of the wrongfulness associated with its taking.  Certainly, it is necessary for an equity to arise that the person to be restrained must have an obligation of conscience, but the basis for an injunction is the need to protect the confidentiality of the privileged document. The plaintiffs’ case for the grant of relief on a basis other than confidentiality is simply this:  that any furtherance of the public interest which supports the privilege is sufficient to warrant the creation of a new, actionable right respecting privileged documents.  This is not how the common law develops.  The law develops by applying settled principles to new circumstances, by reasoning from settled principles to new conclusions, or determining that a category is not closed.  Even then the law as developed must cohere with the body of law to which it relates.  Policy considerations may influence the development of the law but only where that development is available having regard to the state of settled principles.  Policy considerations cannot justify an abrupt change which abrogates principle in favour of a result seen to be desirable in a particular case. In the absence of further facts it is not possible to say whether the plaintiffs are without any possibility of a remedy.  But if there is a gap in the law, legal professional privilege is not the area which might be developed in order to provide the remedy sought.” ...