What set of laws give a bouncer / security guard / crowd controller the right to evict a person from a night club in Australia? if not all Australia then Victoria.
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2Wait, do you have a law that says "a private enterprise must serve any and all customers"? I don't know about Australia, but the right for an owner to restrict access to his own private property is usually the default (that's kind of what "private property" means). Sure, there's more and more examples of where this doesn't really hold anymore, but that really only means that "private" is no longer quite as private as it used to be :P– LuaanCommented Jun 13, 2016 at 12:31
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Usually for these types of things there is either a specific piece of legislation or a series of interjoined pieces of law that make it possible. On "a private enterprise must serve any and all customers"? its not required directly in australia but you cannot refuse service on the basis of race etc.– user1605665Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 23:05
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1 Answer
The bouncer is employed (or (sub)contracted) by the owner/lessee of premises - someone with the right to evict persons from their private property per the common law rights to exclusive use of one's property.
When the bouncer evicts you, they are exercising this right on behalf of and as the agent for the owner, who could do it, but instead has assigned limited agency to the bouncer to do that for them.
Entrance to (and remaining on) a property may be authorised and revoked at any time - at the time that consent is not given or is withdrawn, you become a trespasser and the police may be called upon to forcibly remove you from the premises.
For example, I can have a party at my house, but if I don't like someone, I'm entitled to ask them to leave. I could also ask a friend to ask that person to leave, if I didn't want to do it myself.
Note that bouncers aren't empowered to physically evict anyone except for the general right to use reasonable and proportionate force. For instance, someone that was just standing around in the nightclub probably couldn't be physically thrown out, but someone who was causing harm to themselves or others could be restrained or repelled as appropriate (and if restrained, you'd need to be very careful to do so in the course of effecting a citizen's arrest, otherwise you'd probably be committing false imprisonment).
There may be statutory provisions that bestow additional rights and responsibilities upon bouncers, but this is the basic premise. I'm fairly certain that this would apply in all Australian jurisdictions; probably in all common law jurisdictions.
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If you're coming to this after reading the answer - please note that comments have previously been made. To avoid duplication, please see the discussion in chat.– jimsugCommented Jun 14, 2016 at 2:45