It is unusual that a decision of the High Court of Australia runs so clearly in the face of expectation.1 But decisions that surprise get publicity especially when their concepts are readily intelligible in the lay community. Though Legal Professional and Self-Incrimination Privilege have been narrowed and abrogated by Australian legislatures during the last 50 years,2 press reportssuggest that the High Court decision in ACCC v Stoddart,3 which declared that there never was a spousal incrimination privilege in Australia, have been shocking to the community and even to the profession.4 There may be other larger issues caught up in this decision, for the High Court has normally been reluctant to change longstanding common law rules seeing such policy changes as the constitutional province of the federal legislature.5 Was the opportunity to modernise the spousal privilege law in Stoddart the real reason for this decision and if so should the High Court have been more transparent in the reasons it gave in this case?